I'd heard - on the grapevine - via a number of estate agents about growing numbers of Italians setting up home in London, driven by a combination of a strong Euro and a strange domestic tax situation involving a temporary amnesty. Now - according to Investors Chronicle:

An influx of Italian cash buyers to the central London property market is skewing house price indicators and leading to over-optimistic forecasts of a housing market recovery.

The story comes via, ahem, Capital Economics, and uses data from Savills, who claim 80% of Kensington enquiries and 70% in Knightsbridge are from Italian buyers.

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