Home counties house prices slashed as buyers boomerang back to city

London house-price growth outperformed the home counties last year, where properties valued at more than £1 million have seen an average of £151,130 knocked off their asking prices since last summer.

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Sellers are having to drop their prices by 10 percent on average to attract buyers, according to a prime property report from Investec looking at data from the second half of last year. Homes in or close to London are back in demand as employers row back on working from home and commuting times again factor into people's decisions on where to live.

"The gradual return to office-based working has brought the commute time firmly back into focus, so we've seen greater client demand for the established commuter towns on the outskirts of London," said Carlos Mendes, a private banker at Investec.

Close to 70,000 households moved out of the capital last year, as mortgage rates spiked. But this trend could be about to slow. According to Hamptons, 11.9 per cent of London buyers are from outside of the capital - the highest level since 2009. Zoopla said buyer demand in the capital is up 21 per cent, year-on-year.