Very good blog, as a London investor also living in London I must add to your comments.

I have been finding that most high level investors are trying to obtain market share during this period, you are very right on two counts.
1) The London market is and will always be the best place to invest in property. It will without question out perform any other country even the new emerging places like OZ. Why, quite simply it’s the business capital of the world, it is politically safe and finance safe. Add to this that it’s a quite a small place (London) and there not building anymore land, then add to the increase in people moving here for prosperity and politically driven reasons

2) What i am finding is that the wholesale money markets are the only barriers to market. Once the money becomes available (which should be anytime soon, if, you believe that most western nation governments are holding mortgage paper debts which the tax payer paid for and are rightly fed up about.)Once the money markets and libor are once again working as they should, which all government directives are pushing for so they can un-load the paper debt and keep the tax payer happy, and make a profit (that’s a winning election statement GB & Darling)
I believe that the market will explode with investors. What else in the market place would you invest in? I asked a good friend who works in the city over a pint a simple question.
The question was – You had £100000 in your pocket what would you invest in? where would you put it to get a fairly reliable return (I’m thinking 4.5 – 6% rental yields) his reply was shocking, so shocking that i had to ask him again, he said property, why i said a big high flyer like you investing in property (i know this because he rents one of my flats from me at 7% yield thank you very much)
He said at the moment the stock market is not a market, anything that swings 400 points from one day to the next is just pointless all based on rumour and fear. The fear is driven by investors not have the nads to work out basic fundamentals. Property investors on the other hand have seen swings like this before, just as the dot.com boom came and went, what did the investors do, jumped on the safest investment there is, as long as you invest properly or use a professional to do it for you.
So the question is do investors or should i say the newbie investors have the right criteria for investing in things like shares that they cannot control, or do they invest in property. The answer is simple. If you do your homework are willing to invest to the short to midterm (3 – 8 years) then you should always invest in property, it will not let you down, you can see it, bricks and mortar it’s the old adage – if it’s there and you own it then you can sell it. DO it properly through a vehicle that makes it tax sensible you’re on to a winner?
What i am more amazed about more than anything, two years ago i met people who were desperate to get into property when the prices were cooking, and I mean cooking. So when i speak to them now they say oh! It’s a bit risky, why i said; the market is flat lining they say. Well if its flat lining go fill your boots i said. It can only going up now. I wonder whether they will invest when it’s booming again, properly.

And on a final note – Have you ever wondered why so many property experts have so many predictions for the future, they can’t all be right, i bet most of them have no clue like the rest of us.

If you want to find out what house prices are doing in London then check out the land registry. Its fact not fiction.
London – Officially down 5.2% – don’t take my word for it, check it out, that makes it still 58% higher than it was in 97. I’ll have that + yields any day over shares especially those safe as house shares in banks like Lehman’s
Happy investing & Remember LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION