London. (Credit: Pixabay)
All good things come to an end–at least until there’s some closure on Brexit.
The Financial Times reports Chinese buyers’ interest in London has waned to a fraction of what it once based on research by Cushman & Wakefield, but not for the reasons New Yorkers are experiencing on this side of the Atlantic. Instead, London’s real estate industry is chalking it up to Brexit and the theory seems to have legs.
“On recent trips to Hong Kong I’ve noticed an increasing caution about the UK market,” real estate lawyer Bruce Dear at firm Eversheds Sutherland told the Times. “Their previous exuberance has quietened down a bit as they watch to see what will happen with Brexit and the UK economy in the autumn.”
Going a step further, Colliers International’s head of cross-border capital markets, Richard Divall, said to the Times that, as a result, “if anything we’re going to see some of them selling.”
In the first three months, Chinese buyers poured only £432 million into property deals compared to last year’s total of £7 billion, as the Times reports. In New York, Chinese investment has fallen amid the country’s crackdowns on capital outflows, which has, in certain cases, partly triggered fire sales of major trophy properties. [FT] — Erin Hudson
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