London’s prime residential markets

The equity-driven prime residential markets of London have seen a much stronger rebound in transaction levels over the past year than the mortgage-constrained mainstream market.

Within this market there are noticeable differences between the international sub-market of Prime Central London (PCL), the family-orientated market of South West London (PSWL), and the less mature, development-led prime markets of Docklands and Canary Wharf (PEL).

The underlying differences in the make-up of these markets affect the levels of market activity in them. They respond differently to economic and political conditions; though each is affected by the relative weakness of sterling, plus earning and employment levels within the business and services sector, which contributes to half the demand in all of these three different sub-markets (See Graph 1).