The Market

A 27-year-old from China has reportedly shelled out over £25m for a mansion with views of Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's expected to be confirmed as the second biggest resi sale in Australian history.

There was an unexpected spike in pre-Christmas activity in Mayfair, says local estate agent Wetherell, as the firm bagged just shy of £50m in sales in the traditional holiday wind-down.

Sydney will see the biggest rises in residential property prices of any prime global city this year, says Knight Frank, while Hong Kong, Singapore and Paris are all likely to see price drops.

The whole tax regime in relation to resi properties is in a state of flux; all the more reason why landlords should be wary of rushing into things, says Scott Leonard...

Council taking a long hard look at its stance on amalgamations

While prime central London flatlines, the prime country market has been posting some meaningful growth in average values and transaction numbers.

The Surrey town of Dorking has been ranked as the #1 commuter hotspot to watch in 2016, after a survey of house prices and travel across the south east of England.

The owners of England's 5,000 biggest country estates should be giving up some of their land to make way for more affordable housing, the RICS has suggested.

Proving that 2015 definitely wasn't all doom and gloom, Thomas van Straubenzee and Rory Penn's top-end agency VanHan tucked away a raft of major resi deals over the last 12 months, averaging £16m apiece.

The government cheekily chose a Bank Holiday Monday in the middle of the holiday season to launch a consultation into its scheme to charge an extra 3% stamp duty levy on second homes and buy-to-let properties.

It sounds like vendors are starting to get the message that the market in prime central London has undergone something of a sea change.

Londoners bought 63,000 homes outside the capital last year, a chunky increase on 2014's figure of 38,000.