Super prime housing market "very healthy"

Posted: 03 Jun 2008 13:02:24 GMT

As falling house prices leave homeowners reluctant to sell, the prime property market remains "pretty untouched", an industry expert has said.

As falling house prices leave homeowners reluctant to sell, the prime property market remains "pretty untouched", an industry expert has said.

Knight Frank has expressed surprise over the robustness of the super-prime marketplace where sales of properties over five million remain "very healthy".

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, has explained that once properties exceed a certain price tag, the market is supported by international buyers who are "untouched by the credit crunch".

Mr Bailey said: "They are still buying and they are buying more now than they were last year. It is very healthy at the moment. I would have said it couldn't go on outperforming until the last five months proved that it can."

The latest research by Savills showed that the super-prime market experienced a 1.7 per cent increase in the first quarter of this year.

Figures from 2007 showed a 41 per cent increase in the number of successful £5 million-plus sales.

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