London house price bubble: is it time to quit the capital?

Anxiety over booming property market grow, and as prices rocket homeowners should cash in

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(Image credit: 2008 Getty Images)

THE rumbles of anxiety over London's booming property market are getting louder, says Katie Allen in The Guardian. Against a backdrop of soaring demand and reports of mobbed viewings, housebuyers are now paying more than 99 per cent of asking prices, according to Hometrack. That's "the highest proportion seen for a decade".

With the cost of the average property in the capital approaching £500,000, the gap between London and non-London property prices is now at its widest ever. Last week, the Bank of England warned that almost one buyer in five is taking out a "high income-multiple" loan in a desperate scrabble to get on the ladder before it is lifted completely out of their reach. There are fears of an unsustainable bubble.

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