A eurozone currency crash could take a wrecking ball to London house prices, claims one investment operator. Although some European investors have been piling money into London real estate as the eurozone crisis worsens, demand would ebb once the currency break-up was well under way.

Should you be worried at all - especially if you live in the Capital?


Big fall?

If you're well-off with a fashionable high-end London property or two to your name, you might feel a mite tremor. "In our judgment, a collapse of the single currency area could ultimately produce a 50% fall in the value of PCL [prime central London] property," Fathom Consulting for Development Securities claims in a Telegraph article today.

Property prices in central London however have already been driven disproportionately higher as eurozone investors pile money into the Capital. Fathom is also claiming UK house prices - in certain prime spots of central London - could extend even higher in the short-term.


Berlin bargains

Much of the concern is premised on a sharp rise in sterling - the pound is already increasingly buoyant - against the euro, putting pressure on European investors (the London property market, note, is a traditional safe haven for many Greek investors).

Claims, then, of a possible shock price bump should be seen against unusually high recent price rises. In other words, it depends when and where you draw a line in the sand.

Some property sources are suggesting international investors are increasingly looking at alternatives to London - Berlin and Paris, for example - given the UK's high house values, and the deteriorating value of the euro. There could be bargains, very likely, for some wealthy investors putting money in European property.

But not for the moment in London.



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