National estate agency Strutt & Parker’s Chelsea office have reviewed their Q2 figures and observed some significant changes in the sales being achieved and the level of the market.

Key Headlines:

• Similar activity levels as the same period last year

• Similar activity in the core market between £2m - £5m

• Trades under £2m have rapidly increased to up to 38% from 9% last year

• Volumes of sales above £5m are down by 19% on 2012

• In last Quarter, 70% of trades were to English buyers, 15% to European buyers and 15% to Middle Eastern buyers

• 28% of purchases made under £2m were made by buyers in their 20’s or 30’s

Harry Wigram, Partner, Strutt & Parker Chelsea comments:

“The market was much busier in the second quarter of 2013 after a slow start to the year – we believe activity in the lower core market will continue throughout much of the summer when typically the domestic house market slows down in August.

“We expect the autumn market to return to normality after the summer holidays as long as London doesn’t experience the terrible weather it did at the beginning of the year, which kept a lot of our reliable international buyers far away!”

Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research for Strutt & Parker comments:

“Chelsea falls within our most dynamic prime central London submarket “Chelsea, S. Kensington & Fulham”, where we see the highest sales volumes. It is also one of our youngest markets, with both vendor and buyer groups being predominantly from the 30 to 39 age groups, perhaps not unexpected in a strong family market.”

“One trend we have witnessed over the past year is the decline of property developers within the market, in the year to December 2012 almost 40% of sellers were developers, in the most recent period of year to June 2013 that figure had fallen to 19% with those in finance being the most dominant group. A more domestic market than say Mayfair and Belgravia, 70% of vendors and 63% of buyers are from the UK.”

“A young, domestic and dynamic market “Chelsea, S. Kensington & Fulham” has seen buyers purchase value aspirations increases over the past 18 months and more people buying for secondary and investment purposes. The international characteristics are not nearly so apparent here, however, the price increases of the past few years are without a doubt impacting this market and perhaps forcing more buyers up the value chain.”