London House Prices Post Biggest Drop in Eight Years

• London bore the brunt of heightened political uncertainty in October, with house prices posting their biggest monthly decline for more than eight years.
• Values in the U.K. capital dropped 1.7%, leaving them 1.6% lower than a year earlier — the worst performance of any region, Land Registry figures published Wednesday show.
• London homeowners have lost 16,300 pounds ($21,350) on average since house prices peaked in July 2017. Brexit uncertainty has weighed more heavily in the city of 9 million people than in the U.K. as a whole, where values are still rising on an annual basis, if only just.
• Londoners may struggle to elicit much sympathy, however. Property values are still 75% higher than they were a decade ago; and at more than 472,000 pounds, they are double the national average. Anyone who bought a London home when Margaret Thatcher took office in 1979 has enjoyed a 24-fold increase in value.

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