propertytalk Live!

Tom Gladwin, managing director of Parkheath, a multi-office residential property agency based in London NW3 and NW6 offers his thoughts on market performance in prime London through 2009 and looks ahead to 2010 and what it may bring.

The London market wheezed and spluttered into 2009. Prices were falling, confidence was rock bottom, and economists spoke of further 20 per cent falls. But, over the past year,we have witnessed a remarkable bounce back.

I’ve been saying since the start of the year that I could see the market in London improving albeit from a very low base. As in every downturn, the London market is a forward indicator both on the way into a recession and on the way out.

The most recent Land Registry figures show a slight drop once again, but a drop so small that even the most pessimistic of commentators must be able to see a perceptible flattening of the downturn.

One of the City of London’s finest freehold buildings, the former Midland Bank headquarters at 27-35 Poultry and 5 Princes Street, EC2, has been put on the market by Administrators Malcolm Shierson and Jamie Toynton of Grant Thornton.
 
Knight Frank has been appointed as sole agent by Grant Thornton, administrators of Poultry Developments Limited (in Administration); to market the grade I-listed Lutyens-designed building, whose vault starred as Fort Knox in the 1964 Bond film, Goldfinger.