Indians are among the highest number of property owners in London – the heart of the UK, even ahead of the English themselves. Indians – led by those living in the UK for generations, NRIs, investors living elsewhere, students and families traveling to the UK for education – are the biggest group of property owners in London, followed by the English and Pakistani people, said London-based residential developer Barratt London.
The Indian investors – living in the UK and India – are willing to shell out anywhere between GBP 290,000-450,000 for a one, two or three bedroom apartment in the capital city, London.
“We are seeing a strong demand from Indian investors looking to purchase properties in London and invest in the stable and long-term property market. Outside of London, most of our products are sold to UK residential buyers, who buy these properties and live in them,” Stuart Leslie – International Sales and Marketing Director for Barratt London said.
London being a financial and educational centre and also one of the important global gateways for investors, the city is popular with Indian investors or homebuyers. Also, with prices per square foot nearly identical in London and Mumbai and also a similar legal system making transactions less complicated, it’s only natural for Indian homebuyers to look at London’s real estate market.
The reason why Indians are comfortable with buying property is because of the market fundamentals and confidence along with a history of Indians investing in houses in London. They’re eager to invest in the UK residential markets because they are getting better returns owing to the exchange rates and market presence presently. It is relatively a safer market in comparison to the UAE or India.
Besides being a ‘steady market’ for residential real estate, the UK has positives like pleasant weather and shorter travel time as compared to other overseas potential markets. The demand currently is for close-to-completion and completed projects since ‘people are looking at moving quickly after the pandemic’.