Luxury flat sales hit zero in EU vote run-up

THE property giant behind the £12 billion redevelopment of Earl’s Court today admitted that sales of luxury flats had ground to a halt in the run-up to last month’s EU referendum.

The company, Capital & Counties, which is demolishing the former Earls Court exhibition centre, said there had been no sales at all at its Lillie Square development, the most advanced ele- ment of its Earl’s Court masterplan, ahead of the Brexit poll.

Chief executive Ian Hawksworth said “people were not really making capital decisions” in the weeks of extreme uncertainty before the June 23 vote.

Shares in the company slumped when it said the “slow” sales and “weakened sentiment” in the central London property market had forced it to slash 14.3 per cent, or £162 million, off the valuation of its 77-acre holdings in Earl’s Court, leaving it at £1.195 billion. By mid morning they were down 15p, or more than five per cent, to 281.4p. The writedown left Capital & Counties nursing a £109 million pre-tax loss in the first half of the year.

The shares have tumbled by around 40 per cent over the past year amid growing concern about a possible collapse in the luxury new homes market in central London. But Mr Hawksworth said four apartments at Lillie Square had been snapped up at an average cost of £1.1 million since the referendum.