The Europe correspondent for Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service called me the other day. He was working on a television report about the increasing number of French people buying property in London. More specifically, he wanted to understand the intricacies of taxation and red tape difficulties Parisian property owners face and why the UK is increasingly an attractive alternative.
The call made me think of one particular field I have been consciously avoiding over the past two years – real estate, and more specifically the London real estate market. It is about time to address it, so I asked Sandra Roth- Gowen, a former managing director of a prominent continental real estate company and now independent real estate adviser. She speaks about the industry with contagious passion.
“Most people would agree that investing in bricks and mortar is less risky than investing in other asset classes. The underlying asset usually represents and maintains at least a certain value,” she says.
But, buying real estate can also be seen as a highly emotional act. To some extent it does bring you closer to alternative Investment.
The London market is the crème de la crème when it comes to properties in size, style and, above all, valuation, and this is not going to stop any time soon.