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More Than Half of London’s Luxury Homes Are Getting Discounts

The average across the British capital is 12.1%

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Kensington Gardens, London

WIN-Initiative/Getty Images
Kensington Gardens, London
WIN-Initiative/Getty Images

More than half of London's prime properties are changing hands for below the asking price, according to the latest prime property index from Coutts.

Fifty-three percent of prime properties—defined as homes priced between £1 million (US$1.35 million) and £10 million (US$13.5 million)—were discounted in the first quarter of 2018, compared to 42% at the same time last year, according to last week’s report from the private bank and wealth manager.

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Buyers can now expect to have an average of 12.1% chopped from the asking price of the pricey properties they’re snapping up.

In Bayswater and Maida Vale; Pimlico; Westminster and Victoria; and King's Cross and Islington, buyers are negotiating the highest discounts, over 14% on average, the report said.

In Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth, and in Chelsea—where prices have remained fairly steady, the report said—discounts have been lower, around 10%.

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Overall, sales in London’s prime market are down 24% compared to the same quarter last year and are "likely to remain flat for the rest of the year," the report said. "Sales volumes are also currently down as sellers wait for conditions to improve," it noted.

Though the number of discounts on prime London properties appears high, across the U.K. 86% of properties—a record number—sold for less than their asking price, the highest level seen since records started being tracked in 2013, according to a report last week from the U.K.’s National Association of Estate Agents.