I just went to London for the weekend to meet my nephew- not to run in the marathon. The weather was great and the City is always a treat. We walked miles in the rare blue sunshine, visited pubs, saw a show and dined at the Ivy. I highly recommend the Winston Churchill Museum for all of you history buffs.

 

The real estate values on the other hand are plummeting and the cost of living is increasing as we speak. Always a pricey place to live, the pound is very weak which does nothing for them as far as spending. You can’t even get the tourists there to spend money because everybody is pretty much broke everywhere in the world.

 

Other than bringing more Saudi tourists to reside there through the blistering summer months, we probably won’t see too much action in London real estate.  The Saudis and other oil rich visitors have no interest in buying real estate when they can rent full floors at the Hyatt, per my taxi driver back to Heathrow. So, no second home purchasers happening for foreigners there.

 

So, what will happen to UK real estate in 2009? Probably the same as US! Since they follow our lead there across the pond, we can expect more bank bailouts, another huge wave of foreclosures by the end of the summer and then we shall see.

 

London, the most expensive city in the world to live in, may be moving down the ladder soon. Perhaps it will tie New York at number 5 or even dive further to Lima, Peru at # 69. Maybe they should keep raising the taxes, which are currently almost 50% on personal income tax rates. Wow, what a bright idea.  

 

 

Dale Siegel