August continued the theme of 2023 so far for the prime London sales market – quiet. Values remained broadly stable, with average achieved prices falling by 1.0% compared with a year earlier. Prime central London bucked the wider trend by recording annual growth of 2.3%, bouncing back from last month. New instructions in August were 16.5% lower than the same month last year and 11.5% lower than the prepandemic August average (2017-2019). Transactions fared similarly with a 28.5% annual fall in August, 9.2% below the 2017-19 average. For the whole of 2023 so far there have been almost 24% fewer sales recorded. The number of properties going under offer also fell in August. There was an annual fall of 17.1%, with the total for the year to date 12.6% below last year. However, the number of under offers for the year to date is 18.9% above the 2017-19 average, so the wider context suggests that there is still a decent level of demand in the market. While there are few positive signs in the above analysis, looking at the data for the whole summer suggests that the lack of activity is to be expected and the results for 2023 are nothing out of the ordinary compared to previous years. Sales volumes for the months of June, July and August 2023 combined are a little lower than the 2017-2019 average and both new instructions and under offers are above that baseline.
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