Reuters – Shrinking bonus pools in the City of London will reduce bankers’ clout in the capital’s buoyant prime housing market this year, with hedge fund managers set to outspend them for the first time, data from Savills showed.
The property consultancy said on Wednesday that while banker bonuses were a key factor behind rocketing London house prices in 2006-7, their importance has been overtaken by overseas investors and buyers from the hedge fund and private office-populated West End.