Seller slashes price of house by £1.2m in year

A landlord trying to sell a house in St John's Wood has been forced to slash the asking price by almost half after it languished unsold for a year.

The four-storey property went on sale at £2.8million on 8 December 2007, shortly after the market peaked.

It was cut to £2.25million last month and again to £1.6 million - 42 per cent below the original valuation - on 19 November.

It is one of the starkest examples yet of how properties in even the most popular parts of the capital are struggling to find buyers.

The early Victorian end-of-terrace house is close to Lord's cricket ground and the Beatles Abbey Road zebra crossing in an area favoured by City bankers, diplomats and stars such as Kate Moss. It is currently divided into two flats and the ground floor is occupied by estate agents Global Realty.

Nathan Gaber, manager of the Global Realty office, said: "Originally the landlord went through Foxtons and they did the typical thing of saying they could get the price of Buckingham Palace for it.

"They said they could get £2.8million whereas I told him that if he had gone for £2.1million he would have sold it easily.

"It was definitely mispriced by Foxtons and like everything in life the trouble is that once the price has dropped a single cent people just say 'how low can you go?'"

Mr Gaber said the new price is starting to attract serious interest from investors looking for a bargain.

The first-floor flat is split-level and has two bedrooms, a reception room, kitchen and bathroom. The top-floor flat has three bedrooms, a reception room, kitchen and a terrace.

Mr Gaber said he did not know why the vendor, who did not want to be identified, was selling the house.

It follows the publication of a survey this week showing vendors are slashing asking prices to drum up interest before Christmas.

The report showed the average reduction in recent weeks was almost £29,000, or about 10 per cent.