PrimeResi Quarterly No.1 - preview pages

Q
Foreword
In the three years since PrimeResi reported its very first story (about
a £22m stonker in Richmond, incidentally), the top end of the UK’s
residential property market has felt like an unsettled – and unsettling
– place to be.
Few sectors have faced a greater sustained threat of punitive policy
change.
As we saw in December with the “surprise” SDLT reforms, the fiscal
landscape can change at the drop of a hat. High-value buyers were given
exactly 11 hours and 29 minutes to avoid huge unbargained-for increases
in their tax bills for simply proceeding with their purchase; in some parts
of London, more homes ended up changing hands on that day than on
any other in the past decade.
Meanwhile, the Damoclean prospect of a mansion tax continues to
hang over the market – effectively stalling any meaningful activity until
we find out who’s going to be in charge of the country – and not a day
goes past without a news outlet gleefully prophesying a crash of catastrophic
proportions.
Dumas summed it up best in The Count of Monte Cristo; “uncertainty
is worse than all”.
Despite this, here still exists the most coveted, influential and exciting
residential property market on the planet. The homes and developments
designed and built in the UK today continue to raise the bar on the
international stage, whilst ruinously ambitious restoration projects have
brought some of the world’s finest historical buildings back from the very
brink.
The armies of prodigiously-talented craftspeople, architects, planners,
agents, builders, designers, developers, surveyors and marketeers responsible
may not always work in harmony, but judging by the results featured
in the following pages, they certainly do work very well together. It is one
of the few areas where artisan traders and family businesses go hand-inhand
with global behemoths, creating jobs and pioneering innovation.
To categorise the prime property market as one of empty excess is a
mistake; its importance and relevance runs right through the heart of the
economy and it should be treated with the utmost care.
Without wanting to overdo the Dumas: “All generalisations are dangerous,
even this one”.
We hope you enjoy reading this, the inaugural PrimeResi Quarterly.
Dan Crofton, Editor
Matt Crofton, Publisher