Barbican Flat Watch
Our quarterly guide to Barbican property sales and rentals W
2nd floor Lauderdale Tower apartment recently sold by
Hamptons. Asking price was £899,500
e appear to be in the midst of a property price boom, which is good for those
selling and perhaps moving out to the country – or particularly venturing overseas to countries like Spain and Portugal where property prices are incredibly depressed – and perhaps still falling. But not so good for those looking to start on the property ladder, or for those looking to buy in the Barbican for the first time as here the market seems even stronger than elsewhere. As posts on barbicantalk have emphasised many flats here have surpassed the magic £10,000 per square foot level. Indeed a good tower block flat has just been sold at over £12,000 a square foot. There must be a large number of property millionaires on the Estate – although
a mere million doesn’t seem to get you that far nowadays! It is also interesting to see some
resales occurring already on Frobisher Crescent apartments and also on some never occupied flats in the Heron, while still some apartments there remain unsold even for the first time. Berkeley Homes is also in heavy selling mode on Roman House. There is definitely more property overall coming on the market in the City which could put a dent in continuing price growth until all these new builds are off the market. However, new builds tend to be more costly than equivalent sized Barbican flats which may have contributed in part to the growth in values on the Estate itself. According to official figures from
the Office for National Statistics, June saw an across the board increase in house prices averaging 3.1 % year on year, but prices in London have been rising much faster than this – 8.1% year on year, while the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has commented that house prices are now rising at their fastest rate since the 2006 peak. Anecdotal evidence (see Estate
Agents’ comments below) suggests that Barbican prices are rising quite a bit faster than this, although rises do tend to peak in the summer months – but in general, owner occupiers here have seen the values of their properties increase quite dramatically over the past year – particularly those in the most sought-after blocks with the most attractive flat layouts and outlooks. Even some studio flats are now going for well over the £400,000 mark. There are perhaps a few more
Barbican properties on the market than there have been in recent months, but for the most part it remains a tight market and flats don’t seem to stay on the market for long – indeed some sell before the ink is dry on the agents’ promotional material. Mortgage lending does seem to
have picked up, and government initiatives have been stimulating demand at the lower end of the market (not here), but this does tend to filter upwards as people trade up. Indeed with more money seemingly available for mortgages than in the recent past we are even seeing a bit of
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