Price-rise forecast looks on target

The bold prediction by Yolande Barnes of Savills Research that prices for prime property in central London would rise 25 per cent this year looks less and less rash by the day. Prices rose five per cent in the first quarter of the year - not a traditionally strong selling season.

Houses in Mayfair have seen prices lift 25 per cent over the past 15 months, with Kensington and Notting Hill close behind at 20 per cent. But they will have to rise by a further 18 per cent to regain the peak of mid-1989.