London house prices: Tower Hamlets beats Kensington as it sets property prices pace
01-21-2014
Booming demand: the Government's Help to Buy scheme has turned it into a sellers' market
Russell Lynch
Tower Hamlets trumped Kensington this month as London’s less glamorous boroughs showed the biggest increase in property asking prices, according to property website Rightmove.
The average asking price demanded by sellers in Tower Hamlets jumped 3.6% to £531,917 in January — closely followed by Barking & Dagenham, where prices rose 3.4%. In contrast, Westminster saw an 8.3% slide in asking prices, albeit to £1.39 million while prices in Kensington & Chelsea were down 6.9% to a mere £2.05 million. Across the capital, overall average asking prices eased 0.2% to £514,704 in January.
Across the outer boroughs, prices were up 1.8% compared with a 3.8% fall in more central locations.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: “A combination of the absence of new sellers in the more central and expensive areas due to the time of year and buyers looking for better affordability means that the largest increases in the price of new property coming to market has been in outer London this month.”