What’s your favourite joke? By Paul Finch


It’s hard not to smile just a little at the embarrassment that new PM David Cameron must have felt if he recalled when asked what his favourite joke was answered “Nick Clegg”! To be honest, it was pretty hard not to have a little sympathy for Gordon Brown when he hopped back into his car still mike’d up calling a resident of Rotherham a bigot! There by the grace of God, I suspect.


Politics just got a little bit different in this country and we can expect that life will too. When Mohamed Al- Fayed announced at the beginning of the month that he had sold his flag ship asset Harrods it was time to sit up and take note. Fayed is one of those rare individuals who cleaves opinion rather than just splitting it but he is a shrewd businessman and his nose has been right before. He paid £600m for the store and associated businesses back in 1985. Since then, like all great businessmen he has set out to woo the clientele whose taste in bling is matched by a bank balance that has allowed the store to become a retail Mecca. If Fayed is selling it’s time to do so too.


None of the main parties had much for the property industry in the election and the four days it took for a housing minister to be announced suggests that Mr Cameron has other priorities. One subject high on his list will be the banks. We think we have seen the end of Quantitative Easing and the banks are on their own. They appear to have used the money to feather their balance sheets - feathering what one might suggest was well over-due but £200bn later lending to the property sector and to residential house purchasers in particular seems to be the last thing on most bankers minds.


The future for the housing market rather depends upon which section of the market one is looking at. That part of the market that depends on lending is in


for some tough times. By pretty much any metric you care to use, UK houses are expensive and it’s even harder than it was two years ago to see what will keep prices heading up. What is clear is that sellers have been getting greedy again and are asking too much for their homes. The average asking price across the country is now £67,000 higher than the average price that property is selling for. This is a message that seems to have bypassed the press but it’s worth repeating. Asking prices are over 40% higher than average sale prices! There is no suggestion that only the more expensive homes are selling.


Property at the very top end of the market however is motoring ahead. Last year there were just a 25 sales in prime central London over £10m. In the third quarter of 2010 there have already been more than 25 sales of more than £10m including sales in One Hyde Park at £28m, several homes for around £35m and the sale of what must be the most expensive home in London at over £60m in Belgrave Square. Sales that all involved Beauchamp Estates by the way!


The rich don’t borrow money when they buy property or rather when they do they aren’t troubled by the rates quoted by UK building societies. More than half those who have spent money in London this year at the very top end are foreign nationals. Eastern Europeans who view London as somewhere civilised they can move about without undue risk of being shot, Chinese for whom London has the cache that it once had for the Americans and believe it or not Greeks.


The well publicised troubles that Greece has had in not defaulting on it’s obligations has not been replicated by Greek nationals who see the UK as a haven from rioting teachers and from the Euro. Thank God for the Pound, eh!


In Newbury, there are over 250 people registered on estate agents books with more than £2m to spend. In the West End of London there are more than 250 on the books looking to spend north of £10m! Property may be something that the politicians are choosing to ignore at the moment but that’s perhaps because at least at the very top end, the housing market doesn’t need any interference. Something that the old administration would have found impossible - not meddling in something even though it didn’t need it. Today’s government seems to be offering change. If it ain’t broke then it wont be fixed. What a refreshing change!


BEAUCHAMPESTATES September 2010


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