Homeowners slash nearly £1m off Winchmore Hill house after receiving no offers in two years

The owners of a four-bedroom house in north London have halved the asking price for their home from £2 million after receiving no offers in almost two years.

Jonas Hall and his wife wiped £995,000 off the price for their home in upmarket Winchmore Hill in seven reductions as they have failed to sell in London’s struggling housing market.

The extreme price cut is among growing numbers of properties with reducing asking prices in the capital. Two months ago the Standard revealed that a mansion in Clerkenwell has had its priced halved from £8 million to £4 million after four years on the market.

Uncertainty over Brexit, concern about an imminent rise in interest rates and high stamp duty rates have all hit confidence in the London property market over the past year.

Some 37 per cent of homes on sale in London last month had their prices cut since the “For Sale” board went up, compared with 32 per cent in March.

The Halls’ Tudor-style four-bedroom home in Griffins Close has had no offers after being advertised for 22 months with the online estate agency eMoov. It was originally listed at £1.995 million in January 2016.

Mr Hall told The Sunday Times: “The initial price was based on what was happening a few years ago.

"Many of the people who have come to view it are investors. A lot of the families who might have bought this house are now struggling with mortgage affordability and high stamp duty.”

The property last sold for £440,000 in 2001.

A falling market could be positive for first-time homeowners who have been priced off the ladder by surging prices, with the average deposit in London hitting £100,000 last year.

Only 12 per cent of homes sold in the capital this year went to first-time owners, the lowest proportion since 2000, according to data from Hometrack.

Peter Mackie, senior partner at buying agency Property Vision, said: “Parts of the market have a bit further to fall, but first-timers will welcome more affordable prices and any measures announced in next month’s Budget, such as a stamp-duty cut.

“Purchasers are out there for anything that’s good, and the current state of play is a failure of politics, rather than economics.”

KPMG Economics said uncertainty around Brexit and rising interest rates could trigger further falls, but that property prices would pick up by 2019.and by 2021 London will once again become the driving force of the British housing market.

According to estate agency Aston Chase there have been 50 sales above the £10 million mark this year in London, worth a total of £727 million. Of these 15 were for over £15 million.