The latest UK House Price Index shows that London remains the dominant market where average house price is concerned, topping the £500,000 mark earlier this year.
However, London has failed to see the same house price boom when compared to the rest of the UK, with the lowest rate of annual house price growth at 3.7%, as well as the second-lowest monthly rate (1%).
Despite this, an analysis of sold price records by Astons has found that 85,304 residential transactions have taken place across the capital since the start of the pandemic, with a total value of £56.2bn.
Inner London accounted for seven of the top 10 most valuable London boroughs for bricks and mortar sales over the last year, despite COVID-19 reducing demand due to many working from home.
The City of Westminster took the top spot with £3.74bn worth of property sold despite the pandemic.
Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea (£3.57bn) were also in the top three most valuable areas of the London property market.
Barnet (£2.6bn), Lambeth (£2.4bn), Camden (£2.1bn) and Hammersmith and Fulham (£2m) also rank within the top 10.
However, Astons remarked that COVID-19 has had an influence, with three peripheral boroughs also seeing some of the highest value of homes sold, as homebuyers look from the inside out for larger homes.
Bromley saw the fifth-highest sum of property sold of all London boroughs at £2.5bn, with Richmond (£2.4bn) and Croydon (£1.9bn) also making the list.
The City of London saw just £150m worth of property sold during the pandemic.
Barking and Dagenham (£506m) and neighbouring Newham (£938m) were the only other boroughs to see pandemic sold price sums sit below the £1bn threshold.
Arthur Sarkisian, managing director of Astons, said: “Despite a slower rate of house price growth when compared to the rest of the UK, it’s fair to say that the London property market has held its own with billions of pounds worth of property changing hands despite the pandemic.
“Of course, it will come as little surprise that prime central London continues to account for some of the highest sums of property sold, but there is certainly a COVID influence that is presenting a slightly different landscape to what we might expect.
“London’s outer boroughs have become very popular and I don’t think anyone could have predicted that Croydon would rank as one of the most valuable areas of the London market.
“At the same time, demand and sold prices across the City of London have all but dried up and Newham is no longer riding the wave that came as a result of Olympic regeneration in the borough.”
