In spite of the appetite for owning London housing, there is no shortage of available stock.

As well as large parts of central London, desirable suburbs such as Hampstead and Richmond have received the same surge in demand. The result is that there is enough liquidity in the market to mean buyers are usually not left waiting long.

Ironically, though, it is the constraints on bringing any new stock to the market which have helped keep prices so high.

“Markets such as Paris and Geneva do not have the volumes of the prime London market, and do not have the supply constraints that underpin London values,” says Jonathan Hewlett, head of Savills residential business in London.

“Arguably, as a result, values in Paris are more out of kilter with the broader market. Geneva is very much a business center and often seen as somewhat clinical and Paris, though increasingly cosmopolitan, does not have London’s social and cultural diversity,” he adds

One factor which was expected to have negative consequences for the ascent of London’s housing market was a raft of punitive stamp duty tax measures drafted in during the UK’s recent budget.

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