Eight in 10 homes in London's poshest postcodes now sell below asking price, Coutts finds

Eight out of 10 properties in London's most exclusive neighbourhoods now sell below asking price, according to research by Coutts, which provides private banking services to wealthy clients.

Areas such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Knightsbridge are included in the picture, with sellers facing hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses to the value of their homes, the research said.

Property prices in prime central London, which covers the city's most expensive postcodes, have dropped 5 percent in the third quarter of 2026, as the slowdown in the UK property market hits its wealthiest residents.

Properties are selling at an average 10 percent discount to their asking price, Coutts found.

Prices in the highest end of London's property market are now 14 percent below their peak in 2014, having been hit by Brexit, the Covid pandemic, higher property taxes and a surge in borrowing costs.

Buying and selling agents in the capital have also reported a slowdown in interest from foreign-born buyers after the abolition of the non-dom tax regime.

Exclusive areas such as Knightsbridge and Belgravia, and South Kensington, have been hit the hardest, Coutts said, with prices 30.8 percent and 26.9 percent below their peaks respectively.

Alex Webster, head of lending at the bank, said buyers and sellers at the top end of the market were taking a more cautious approach, even before Chancellor John Healey's first budget this week.

Webster said sellers will now be watching to see if the budget encourages some of that delayed activity to return, but that financing conditions and the wider economic environment will continue to influence the market.

There has been no change in the Bank of England base rate since last December, with the rate held at 3.75 percent, but volatility in the bond market has driven up the swap rates that influence the pricing of fixed-rate mortgages.

Expectations are growing that next week its monetary policy committee will vote to increase the rate for the first time in three years to 4 percent.

Sellers in prime central London are increasingly shying away, Coutts found, with new listings down 14 percent compared with the previous quarter and available stock down by 6 percent year-on-year.

Transactions were 9.1 percent lower in the third quarter of this year, with the biggest slowdown in the 2 million to 5 million pound band, where transactions were down 22.3 percent.

Separate research from the estate agent Savills found that buyers at the very top end of the market are driving activity, with 26 transactions above 10 million pounds in the third quarter of this year, taking the total to 127 over the past year, worth 2.88 billion pounds in total, Savills said.