London Still Promising Capital Gains

For years London has seemed like the best and worst of the property market. On the one hand, it has been at the centre of the biggest bang in the loud boom of the UK housing market, with London property prices comfortably outstripping the national average and soaring astronomically in the central areas, driven by high city bonuses and super rich buyers from overseas looking to buy homes, including individuals such as Roman Abramovic and Lakshmi Mittal, who bought a home in London for a then world record £70 million in 2004. In contrast, the high prices, driving even the average house over the inheritance tax threshold, have brought complaints that the residential market is driving out families and pricing more and more people out of the city. It has also raised the question of whether buy-to-let investments are available at a good price. For this reason, a Daily Telegraph property feature last week suggested buy-to-let investors would be best off looking in other parts of the country. Having stated that buy-to-let in the regions offered good returns without large investments, it noted the comments of Peter Holden of Assetz, who noted the potential of a number of locations, includingLiverpool Property with its "fantastic" regenaration, Ipswich - where the arrival of the university is an advantage, Swansea with its waterfront and, surprisingly as it may seem to some, south coast locations like Hastings, Littlehampton and Bognor, where Mr Holden advised, properties were certainly not too expensive. With so many locations enjoying renewal, attractive cityscapes, university accommodation and good prices for investors, one might conclude that London can be written out of the script altogether. Not so, according to the chief executive officer of London Central Portfolio, Naomi Heaton. There is one factor that will lead to many new opportunities for investors in the capital - the Olympic Games. She said: "There will be an awful lot of new builds around the Olympic stadium and the Olympic village and the long term Government plan for the Olympic village is for it to become affordable housing for key workers." Not that it is only the east of the capital around the Games Park in Stratford that will benefit, Ms Heaton added, noting that some 2012 events, such as the beach volleyball and the triathlon, will take place in central London, which, along with the general increase in tourism to its existing attractions, will boost the heart of the city as well, these benefits including a "face lift" of the area and the addition of new transport infrastructure such as crossrail. n nHowever, Ms Heaton notes, there is "almost no new housing stock" in this part of London, with the scarcity bound to increase if demand rises still higher as a result of the games. The situation for the east end, however, will be very different, she said, noting that "near the Olympic stadium there may be maybe ten thousand units there. So you've got an area where there's going to be a massive stock availability whereas in central London it's going to become an even more scarce resource." With such availability and prices lower than other parts of London, this could offer the capital bargain investors are looking for.