The Market
One Hyde Park vendor offers £9m stamp duty sweetener
The owner of the most expensive flat on the open market, Apartment C.08.1 in One Hyde Park, has offered to cover the mammoth £9m stamp duty bill staring down potential buyers.
Year of the Dragon: Hong Kong developer bags green light for £8.4bn Greenwich scheme
Hong Kong mega-developer Knight Dragon has been given the go ahead for its ambitious Greenwich Peninsula masterplan, delivering 15,720 new homes and a whole new district twice the size of Soho.
RICS doubles house price growth forecast for this year
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has amended its forecasts for this year to reflect higher price growth and lower transaction levels.
VanHan optimistic on PCL sales market
Thomas van Straubenzee and Rory Penn's boutique agency VanHan is expecting the market to pick up in prime central London over the next three months, and has tipped Mayfair as the hotspot to watch.
As a cooling measure, stamp duty reform has succeeded – Knight Frank
"As a cooling measure, December’s stamp duty rise for high-value property has succeeded", says Knight Frank in its latest prime London round-up.
Digs Spenders: London’s £600m foreign student lettings market now a ‘key driver’
The 107,000 international students currently studying in London contribute a whopping £600m in rental income to the capital's lettings market, with some spending up to £1,500 a week on swanky digs…
The Phantom Bounce: Vendors are missing the top of the market – Chestertons
"The London market is unusually difficult to call at present," says Chestertons, with a post-election "phantom bounce" making forecasting even more tricksy than usual.
Rare double development project in Kensington up for £17m
A brace of unmod mansions has gone up for sale on Prince of Wales Terrace, right by Kensington Gardens, sporting a cool £17m price tag for the pair.
Winkworth profits hit by sales slump
Winkworth has reported a 17% drop in pre-tax profits in its latest set of results, after sales were hit by all that uncertainty around the election.
Stick or List: Why building out now makes more sense than trading in
It's no surprise that planning applications are on the rise while transactions have been dropping like a stone, says Matthew Kaye;
Lurot Brand opens up in Notting Hill
Sales and lettings agency Lurot Brand has added to its central London network with a shiny new shop front in W11.
Redrow tops £1bn in turnover as it pulls back from PCL
Giant housebuilder Redrow has "curtailed" its land buying in super-prime areas of London in response to the softening market.