LONDON: India-based real estate developer Lodha Group has dismissed the perception that Brexit had an impact on the city’s property market, saying Indians still have considerable interest in buying luxury flats in London and constitute among 15 to 20 per cent of the buyers.
The Lodha Group said luxury apartments being built in the heart of London’s posh Mayfair area, opened up for sales recently and has clocked 50 million pounds so far.
The group’s second residential project in the city, at Lincoln’s Square, has been open to buyers since last year and is at around 150 million pounds of sales, said Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director of the group which made its UK entry in December, 2013.
Dismissing any major Brexit impact on the London property market, Lodha revealed considerable Indian buyer interest in the luxury flats.
“Indians constitute about 15-20 per cent of the buyers. It’s a very diverse audience but the common theme has very strong roots in London,” said Lodha.
“We are doing well on sales. And, this is in a very difficult external environment in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum last year,” he said.
It has since been developing its two flagship projects in the heart of the British capital, with apartments at Lincoln Square starting at 990,000 pounds and Grosvenor Square from 7.5 million pounds.
“To me, London is the finest city in the world and it will continue to be a huge magnet for talent and business for many, many years to come – irrespective of whatever short-term impact that might happen on account of the aftermath of the [Brexit] referendum,” he said.
Sales value per square foot for houses priced between 2 million pounds and 5 million pounds fell by 8.4 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier as political uncertainly deterred potential buyers, local media reports quoted data compiled by researcher LonRes as saying last week.
Selling prices for properties over 5 million pounds, fell 3.2 per cent, the report said.
Source: Press Trust of India