Opinion |

House prices in London: Should I buy a home?

Hi, I’m Gus Zogolovitch, and I’m the founder of Rare Space. There’s been a lot of talk about house prices going up and down, so what is the current state of the market?

What I’m telling people, and what I believe, is that house prices in London have come down quite a lot, actually. I think they’re nearing the bottom. So maybe the wider question is whether or not you would buy a place now if you had the resources to. Or should you wait?

What I say to people who ask me those questions – because I get those questions a lot – is that it depends.

Obviously.

How do we create more design-led homes?

So the question I’ve been asked today is ‘Why are there not more design-led homes?’ Why is it so difficult to find them?

And I think the answer comes down fundamentally to an idea about incentives. Now hopefully I won’t get too elaborate and complicated here. But bear with me for a minute as I try and explain what I mean by that.

Tax rebate for ‘good landlords’

(thoughts on the Guardian article “Treasury weighs up tax break for landlords who sell to generation rent” 5 October 2018)

I like the fact that the Government is considering different proposals around housing. However, housing and population are inextricably linked, so in principle, converting a flat/house from being rented out to being owned doesn’t bring a new home into existence and therefore the fundamental supply demand imbalance remains and house prices become unaffordable for most.