Election Farce Or Greek Tragedy?

As the ash settles on the Election and commentators masticate on the permutations that could result from the British political systems inability to deliver a credible and fair outcome it is events in Greece that we expect to have more impact on property in London.

Housing is just one subject that is going to take a back seat in the coming days as politicians scrap over who might support who to create some kind of workable government. All the main housing spokesmen who were in place before the General Election look to have retained their seats save for the Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Sarah Teather who fought for the seat in Brent Central.

None of the main parties had radical plans for housing although there were headline grabbing policies such as the ‘Mansion Tax’ and plans to scrap Home Information Packs none of which were offered with any clear alternative. “I don’t believe that housing and the wider property market will return to the political agenda until after the summer” said Simon Godson partner in Central London agents W.A. Ellis.

“Events in Greece with the knock on effect to the Euro and to other Euro based countries continues to be of greater risk to the UK housing market” said Godson. “We are seeing chaos on the streets in Athens with teachers being hosed down with water cannons. While we debate the niceties of whether Gordon Brown has a mandate to continue to govern, the Greek people are slipping into anarchy.

“In the last few weeks we have seen significant new interest in the London property market from Greeks looking not just for a safe home for their money but in some cases literally a safe home” continued Godson. “I expect to see some of the bigger transactions of the first half of this year involve Greek nationals many of whom are now finding themselves competing with cautious Portuguese and Spaniards some of whom fear that their countries are next.

“London looks very attractive to many in mainland Europe at present” said Godson. “For them, the outcome of the General Election is of very little interest as they look back at the chaos on the streets of their own capital.