As many as three quarters of sales in recent developments have been to buyers based in China. Photo credit – Pixabay

Teetering of UK property market could concern Chinese investors

Amongst Londoners, opinion of house prices tends to be guided by whether you’re a homeowner or a renter.

To be clear, pretty much everyone agrees that housing in the British capital is too expensive. As a renter, I found it absurd that well over half of my income every month went on housing.

Owners, however, have become used to sharp annual price increases which allow them to move up the property ladder quickly and, in a sense, subsidise their living costs.

The dependability of the British housing market has also proved to be popular with investors – and in recent a years a growing number of these have been Chinese.

Indeed, British developer Telford Homes has credited sales to Chinese investors with helping it to achieve record profits.

The firm recently revealed a 3o percent rise in profits, boosted largely by strong sales in London.

According to the company, as many as three quarters of sales in recent developments have been to buyers based in China.

Telford Homes is not the only company to feature in the news recently in connection to growing ties between the property markets of the UK and China.

Earlier in April, we reported that China’s biggest property developer, Country Garden, has been revealed as the investor preparing to plough £80 million into constructing 785 new homes on a site in East London.

However, the market seems to be teetering on the brink of a decline in prices.

That’s according to the latest data, which blames uncertainty over Brexit for a 0.1 percent nationwide (and 0.5 percent in London) fall in property values.

Of course, it’s far from a collapse at this stage.

Nevertheless, a number of investors are understood to be concerned that if Brexit has negative consequences for the British economy, this could be the start of a long decline in real estate values.