London’s Riverside Homes Get That Sinking Price Feeling

(Bloomberg) -- The ribbon of fancy apartments overlooking the River Thames in central London is leading price declines in a city where three quarters of boroughs are now in the red.

A trio of boroughs skirting the river as it navigates through the capital recorded double-digit price drops in the year through September, the biggest losses in the city, according to a report from LSL Acadata. That’s thanks to the “considerable new development” those areas have seen over recent years, the report said.

This is bad news for developers who are building on thousands of prime river-view plots from Battersea and Nine Elms in the west through Greenwich and Newham in the east. In total, 25 of the 33 London districts analyzed by Acadata suffered price declines in the year through September, four more than a month earlier, with lower-value areas further from the city center typically faring better.

Overseas investors who snapped up the high-priced riverside apartments are among the big losers from London’s property downturn. Yet the picture isn’t entirely bleak for properties with a Thames view, Acadata said, with some new-build sales yet to be recorded that could improve the numbers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Sidders in London at jsidders@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong, Ross Larsen

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