On the less fashionable fringes of London, home sellers are quickly finding out just what the market can bear.
Buyers fleeing the capital’s costly center turned peripheral boroughs into London’s hottest property markets. Now, more sellers in those areas are being forced to cut their prices after values quickly outstripped the spending power of the average buyer.
The number of asking-price reductions is growing at the fastest rate in outer London boroughs such as Barking & Dagenham and Newham. Discounts have also increased in areas such as Tower Hamlets in the east and Croydon in the south.
“Peripheral areas, which buyers turned to when inner London became too expensive, have seen considerable inflation recently and reached a point where affordability is stretched,” said Neal Hudson, founder of researcher Residential Analysts Ltd. “Before, people got around it with longer-term mortgages, but the limit has been reached.”
