London Luxury-Home Prices Driven Higher by Overseas Purchasers

Luxury-home prices in central London are increasing in value twice as fast as the U.K. market as a whole as the weaker pound leads more overseas buyers to shrug off higher taxes and seek bargains in the most expensive neighborhoods, according to Knight Frank LLP.

Prices of properties costing more than 2 million pounds ($3 million) rose 20 percent in June from a year earlier, the London-based real estate broker said in an e-mailed report today. U.K. house prices gained 8.7 percent in the same period, Nationwide Building Society, Britain’s largest customer-owned lender, said June 30.