Market Insights April 2026

Please see below our April Market Insights sharing the key themes we’re seeing in prime central London this month.

We would be delighted to have a conversation if you have any questions, or are exploring your options and would appreciate further insight or perspective.

Best wishes

Jo Eccles

Founder and Managing Director, Eccord

+44 (0) 20 7244 4482 / +44 (0) 7740 825 875

jo.eccles@eccord.com

LinkedIn | Instagram

Overconfidence is costing buyers in the core market

Despite a backdrop of economic uncertainty and persistent higher borrowing costs, the London property market is particularly active in the £2m - £5m price range, where needs-based buyers continue to transact as a result of life events such as new jobs, school places, growing families and relocations back to the UK.

Many selling agents are however reporting a disconnect between buyer confidence and expectations, versus reality. As one recently said: “If a buyer tells me they have viewed 30 properties and aren’t in a rush, I won’t call them back”.

We have seen this with our own clients, many of whom have tried searching the market themselves before contacting us, expecting a buyer’s market but finding it to be far more complex. In the core market, one had recently bid on four properties in Chelsea and lost out each time, with one £2.3m property he had offered on attracting four other competitive bids, resulting in a final sale price of £2.7m.

In prime areas such as Chelsea and Kensington, we are explaining that a lot of sellers have minimal borrowing, very few are distressed and they will happily wait until the right offer comes along. In one conversation, the potential buyer replied that this perfectly described his own parents whose London house has been on the market for two years as they’re not under any pressure.

Compared to buyers at higher price points, those in the £2m – £5m price range are less likely to appoint a buying agent to represent them from the outset, often perceiving it as an unnecessary cost. Yet the market has probably never been more nuanced and difficult to navigate independently than it is today, and market insight is paramount.

We are increasingly having informal calls with buyers, offering guidance, advice and helping them sense-check decisions where needed. In many cases they return to us down the line as they come to recognise the complexity of the market and the value of informed, objective advice.

There are opportunities to be had, but they’re not always being shown to buyers who estate agents deem to be entirely ‘deal’ focused and unrealistic.

Pricing uncertainty creating challenges for buyers

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is: “How can I be certain I’m not overpaying?” This is one of the key difficulties facing buyers at any time, but particularly in the current market where asking prices are inconsistent and reliable comparables are few and far between.

A proportion of sellers are fatigued and pricing competitively to sell, some are deliberately pricing in a substantial margin for negotiation, and others are holding firm and seeking to recoup the price they originally paid plus stamp duty. The challenge is identifying which is which.

While publicly available data such as Land Registry or Rightmove provides a useful reference point, it typically lags the market by at least six to twelve months, which makes it unreliable as a sole indicator of value. Correctly interpreting pricing now requires a forensic understanding of each micro-market, how long a property has been for sale, any previous price reductions, and the owners’ personal circumstances and motivation for selling.

Price per square foot data is indisputably one of the most important tools to assess value, but it needs to be analysed in context.

Securing a property isn’t always about offering the highest price and my most recent column in The Telegraph explained exactly this. Even in a highly price-sensitive market, sellers are prioritising credibility and will be more inclined to accept a buyer (and potentially a lower price) if they like them and trust them to see the transaction through, versus another party offering more, but who comes across as opportunistic and less reliable or emotionally committed.

In one recent case, a buyer submitted a ‘best and final’ offer, adding that they were equally interested in two other properties nearby, should their offer not be accepted. Rather than making the seller eager to accept their offer, it led the seller to question their commitment, concluding they could easily have their head turned by another property during the process. They proceeded with another offer as a result.

Supply crunch in the rental market

The Renters’ Rights Act comes into effect tomorrow (1st May) and I wrote a column in the Financial Times sharing my advice for landlords who are unclear or unprepared for it.

Many of our own landlords are choosing to remain in the market – often because there is a dual purpose to their investment, such as plans to use it as a future pied-à-terre or passing it on to children. But for many in the wider market, concerns over losing flexibility to sell the property has proved to be the tipping point.

Under the new rules, if a landlord serves notice to a tenant in order to sell the property, but it doesn’t sell for any reason, it cannot be re-let for a period of 12 months. Consequently, landlords would face having to cover mortgage costs, service charges and maintenance costs for up to a year without any rental income. In the face of this, a large number of landlords have served notice to tenants in the run up to the changes, deciding to try to sell their property now, before they are locked into longer, rolling tenancies. 

As a result, we have seen a surge of tenants needing to find new properties. In the past fortnight alone, approximately 80% of tenants viewing properties with our rental team are those who have been served notice by their previous landlords ahead of the new rules coming into force. Supply is tightening, with new rental listings in prime central London down by 8% year-on-year in Q1. In one recent example, our rental team launched a 3-bedroom house in Battersea on a Friday afternoon and received 25 enquiries over the weekend, with terms agreed by the following Wednesday.

Despite increased competition, which is likely to drive rents up over time, tenants are still highly price sensitive and overpriced properties are sticking on the market. Our advice to landlords who remain firmly anchored to a higher price is to be mindful of the cost of extended void periods and the negative impact this will have on their net yield.