10 pounds to buy an apartment in Knightsbridge, London?
Knightsbridge in London is usually not a place to buy cheap goods, but this year lucky homebuyers may be able to buy a three-bedroom apartment on Walton Street for £10-the apartment is valued at more than 300 Ten thousand pounds. What this lucky guy needs to do is to beat hundreds of other competitors in a "spot-the-ball" game in the form of cricket. In addition to obtaining the ownership of the house, the winner’s stamp duty on the purchase of the house will also be paid, and a matte black Jeep (Jeep) will also be obtained.
Santa Agolli, the founder of Your Laddr, the organizer of the competition, said: "This is a very attractive residence. It is adjacent to Harrods, which is a dreamlike life. Way." This real estate quiz is also the start-up project of Aligo: Your Laddr will eventually sell a series of residences through the same mode of competition.
“It’s only £10, why not try it?” said Noel De Keyzer, head of sales at Knightsbridge, the real estate group Savills. According to data provided by research firm LonRes, the average price of apartments in the Knightsbridge area in 2017 was more than 3 million pounds, and the average price of single-family houses was close to 5 million pounds. Therefore, the opportunity of 1 in 380,000 provided by Your Laddr may be more attractive than paying the full payment.
David Copping of the law firm Farrer & Co said: “As long as the entire game design requires sufficient skills, judgment or knowledge, the'find the moving ball' game can be legally played in the UK. There is no need to apply for an additional operating permit.” But he added that if the award is based solely on luck or guesswork, this kind of competition is likely to be regulated by the Gambling Commission.
Local agents in Knightsbridge think this game is a lie, but home sellers may be open to new ideas. The data provided by LonRes shows that since 2014, residential prices in this area have fallen by 15%, while the average listing time of houses actually sold last year on the market was 157 days, and 45% of them had their prices lowered. .
Like other wealthy London neighbourhoods, Knightsbridge was hit by what De Keizer calls the "Osborne shock"-the stamp duty reform promoted by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne first raised the price higher than The stamp duty rate of 937,500 pounds of real estate, in addition to an additional 3% stamp duty on the second house. "People haven't adjusted to the changes we have experienced in the past 18 months." He said, "The sellers of homes may no longer be able to sell their homes in the traditional way."
“As a buyer, if you need to pay 10% to 15% stamp duty, the cost of choosing the wrong house will be unbearable.” said Harry Dawes, the head of Knight Frank's sales department in Knightsbridge. This kind of caution is evident among Knight Frank's customers. "In 2014, when the market was the hottest, we averaged 18 groups of customers for each listing, and now there are about 45 groups." Dawes said. "The number of transactions we have registered in Knightsbridge has never been so small." De Kaiser said, "Currently the number of transactions for high-end properties (properties of more than £5 million) has fallen by 40% to 50%."
The weak and sluggish market situation has dampened the enthusiasm of non-rigid-demand buyers, and many people have switched to renting, waiting for market confidence to recover. Camilla Dell, a homebuying agent, has another explanation for this: "Knightsbridge is no longer the desirable residential area in the past." She said, "Many of my clients think of Knightsbridge. It has lost its former glory.” Even buyers in the Middle East have begun to get involved in Belgravia's Garden Square and Mayfair. The status of Middle Eastern clients in the real estate sector in Knightsbridge is It is so important that Harrods has now become a state-owned asset of Qatar.
Before falling into a downward trend, the property prices in Knightsbridge had continued to rise. The area spans Kensington & Chelsea and the City of Westminster. Data provided by Savills Residential Research shows that from 2005 to 2015 During the year, property prices in these two regions have seen the highest increase in the entire United Kingdom. In the past ten years, housing prices in these two areas have risen or even exceeded 80%.
One reason for this boom is the launch of a series of ultra-high-end residential developments, such as The Knightsbridge, which contains 201 residential properties adjacent to Hyde Park. A one-bedroom apartment in this development is currently being listed on the real estate agency Harrods Estates for a price of 3.495 million pounds-more than 4,000 pounds per square foot.
After the Knightsbridge Apartments, One Hyde Park was launched in 2011. This is a project developed by the Candy brothers. The sale price is as high as £6,000 per square foot, which has caused heated media discussion. Simon Barry, head of new residential development at Harrods Estates, said: “One Hyde Park is still far more well-known than any other property.” Dyer’s evaluation of Hyde Park One is not so high, saying it is "A goldfish bowl".
One Hyde Park undoubtedly has a premium over other developments. The five-bedroom apartment currently being sold by Knight Frank is priced at £50 million. Several apartments in the residential development project are owned by offshore companies-as of the last statistics, Hyde Park One claims that 20 customers have purchased residences priced at more than £20 million.
According to data provided by LonRes, the number of real estate transactions in the Knightsbridge area has shrunk by 36% from 2014 levels, and even if there was a slight rebound last year-the number of homes sold increased by about 26 units from the previous year-it did not help boost Morale of real estate sales agents in the area. Nowadays, finding a moving ball may be easier than finding a buyer.