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| Nine Elms regeneration zone |
There is a striking
disjunction between the desperate shortage of affordable housing in
the capital, and the extraordinary panorama of cranes, pile-drivers
and high-rise residential blocks in various states of construction
visible from almost anywhere in the city with a view.
Even more
extraordinary, at least to someone unfamiliar with London's
dysfunctional property market, is the fact that many of the newly
completed apartments transforming the skyline are empty, bought
off-plan by overseas investors as convenient assets in which to
stash their cash. But now it appears that all is not well in
the luxury homes trade.
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| Battersea Power Station |
Last month Morgan
Stanley warned that prices of new, upmarket London flats could fall
by as much as 20% this year, and the International
Business Times reported that Chinese investors who bought
apartments off-plan in the Battersea power station development are
having second thoughts now the time has come to pay the balance on
their relatively small up-front deposits. Those in the know are
clearly expecting trouble: although pre-tax profits at the estate
agent Foxtons only fell by 3% last year, investors knocked 33% of the
share price. If these are the first signs of a bursting bubble, it
would be good news for anyone who thinks of four walls and a roof as
home, rather than an offshore shelter for their dodgy money.
More pictures here.
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| Construction of Alto Apartments, Wembley |
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