International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

The number of foreign buyers in London has turned from an interesting footnote into a true phenomenon.

Overseas buyers now account for more than 50 percent of purchases, according to a report released today by Knight Frank, the property company.

In upper crust neighborhoods Mayfair, Kensington and Hampstead, international buyers accounted for 60 percent of prime purchases. For properties priced higher than £5 million, the percentage of foreign buyers is 68 percent, compared to 39 percent December 2008, according to Knight Frank's report.

The original Chelsea Barracks plan

A London court has ruled that Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund acted improperly when it withdrew support for a controversial Chelsea project after complaints from Prince Charles.

The case brought by CPC Group, the company controlled by high-profile luxury developer Christian Candy, has turned into one of the U.K.’s most closely watched soap operas, thanks to the role of His Royal Highness. The court ruled that Prince Charles’ intervention in the Chelsea Barracks redevelopment plan, which was being developed by CPC and Qatari Diar, was “unexpected and unwelcome.”

Asian investors are purchasing central London property in unprecedented numbers and now account for 20 percent of all new build sales, a new report concludes.

In the last year, buyers from Asia represented 49 percent of the homes purchased as investments, compared to only 36 percent from the U.K., according to the new international report from property company Knight Frank.

“While the market has returned to life, after it pretty much shut-down in 2008, current international investment demand is almost totally concentrated on London and is primarily coming from Asia,” said Knight Frank residential research director Liam Bailey.

While many markets continue to plod along, bouncing and churning in the bubbles of a partial recovery, primary central London prices are surging again, conjuring images of the boom years.

After a 1.4 percent bump in May—the 14th consecutive monthly increase—prime London prices are up 23 percent since last March, Knight Frank report. That’s only 6.4 percent below the market’s peak, achieved in March 2008.

Overseas buyers are helping lead the surge, the property company says. While U.K. residents have been hesitant to commit, foreign buyers, especially Russians, are taking advantage of the weak pound. The number of Russian applicants grew by 112 percent in the last two months.

For the second year in a row, Monaco ranks as the world’s most expensive residential real estate market, with prices averaging from $4,300 to $5,900 a square foot.

In fact, it was no competition. London was a distant second, with prices topping out at $4,400 a square foot, according to the just released 2010 Knight Frank Wealth Report. Paris was third, offering a relatively reasonable range of $2,400 to $3,300 a square foot.

NoHo Square was a fabled project in London, a boom era splash of decadence and luxury targeting the city’s growing international affluent class.

Promoted by the flamboyant Candy brothers, Nick and Christian, the plan was to turn the former Middlesex Hospital site in Fitzrovia into an array of offices and posh residences. Backed by Kaupthing, the Iceland bank, the Candy’s paid £175 million ($262 million) for the property in 2006 and won approval for an 890,000-square-foot development the next year, including more than 200 luxury apartments.

Now the site is nothing more than an empty lot, a symbol of an ambitious development that never happened.

By an overwhelming margin, investors chose London as the world’s top commercial property market, according to an annual survey by Washington D.C.-based Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

London moved past Washington D.C. and New York, with Paris and Tokyo rounding out the top five. In the 2009 survey, London was second, in a virtual dead heat with New York and Washington, but this year respondents chose London by a wide gap, the association reports.

Fifty-one percent identified the U.S. as the best opportunity for capital appreciation, compared to 37 percent in 2008 and 26 percent in 2007. Two-thirds of respondents said they planned to increase their U.S. investments in 2010.

The annual survey reflects the responses of 200 AFIRE members, who control more than $842 billion in real estate.

Analysts agree that 2010 won’t be a banner year for residential property in London. At the very least, there is consensus that the market is unlikely to return to the heady days of cash-crazed Russians, million-pound designer lofts and double-digit price growth.

But analysts are far apart in their actual predictions for the market, suggesting that no one is absolutely sure what the hell is going to happen.

U.K. estate agent Savills this week issued what one London paper termed a “groveling apology” as part of a settlement with an ex-client, who charged the agency with defrauding him of more than £7 million (about $11.7 million.)

The latest forecast prepared by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for Chesterton Humberts predicts growth in U.K. prices in the next year, disputing more pessimistic recent reports.

Although there might be a more than touch of boosterism in Chesterton Humbert’s position--the release is scarce on details and specific forecasts—the consultancy cites several reasons for optimism. For one, interest rates should remain low, while lending loosens up and mortgages become more available. Plus, there will likely be a shortage of supply, especially in London, the firm argues.