Real estate developers and house owners in London are rolling out special discount offers to buyers from the GCC region who are willing for dollar-denominated prices for property purchases, industry insiders said. Buyers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, besides the UAE are said to be lapping up the offers to strike deals to buy properties mainly in the central London areas.
The impact of a falling sterling on Dubai’s real estate market. The discounts are not property-specific but are offered to specific buyers who are dollar-denominated. The dollar-denominated price offers to represent a discount of about 23 percent, compared with the sterling-dollar exchange rate in January of 2022.
Sector analysts described the move as a classic case of troubled times calling for innovative strategies. Industry insiders said family-sized homes that would appeal to buyers from the GCC region usually have a starting price of about £2 mn. These prices are for a 3-bed apartment in Bayswater, St Johns Wood, or Baker Street W1 locations.
Industry executives said GCC buyers with budgets far exceeding this were common within Prime Central London (PCL). Weir said GCC buyers were rushing to explore house purchases under this scheme as this will be available for only as long as the sterling is weak and the dollar strong.
The dollar-denominated offers, combined with the current low sales prices in Prime Central London from a historic perspective, add to the attractiveness of these deals to buyers from GCC countries
Second homes for their family’s summer holidays in central London have long been popular among wealthy GCC investors. Many even use them as a main residence within Europe using London as a staging post if they travel throughout Europe or to the US.