London’s flat market is in meltdown — and nowhere is the pain being felt sharper than in Chelsea and Kensington.

Disturbing new figures reveal flat prices in the Royal Borough have plunged by up to 17% in just a year, wiping hundreds of thousands of pounds off homes once seen as rock-solid blue-chip investments.

The average flat in Chelsea and Kensington is now selling for under £950,000 — down from almost £1.15 million a year ago. And for many owners, it is far worse.

Across the borough, three in every ten flat owners who bought in the past 20 years and sold last year lost money, even before inflation is factored in.

And anyone who bought a new-build apartment in the past two decades is now highly likely to sell at a loss, according to estate agent Hamptons. In 2025 alone, two in five new-build flat owners across London sold for less than they paid.

Price falls are most savage in prime central areas. City of London: prices down 18%, Kensington & Chelsea: down 17%, City of Westminster: down 16%.

In Westminster, the average flat has crashed from £946,000 to £791,000 in a year. Even traditionally solid Victorian and Georgian conversions aren’t escaping the slump.

Experts say a toxic cocktail sent prices into a tail-spin – including sky-high service charges, the end of Help to Buy, fewer high-paying City jobs and higher taxes on overseas buyers and non-doms.

Many flats still come with punishing ground rents that rise with inflation or double every decade, turning once-manageable costs into long-term liabilities buyers are desperate to escape.

The result? A flood of sellers cutting their losses — and prices tumbling further as desperation feeds the downturn.

What was once London’s safest bet now looks like its biggest property gamble. And in Kensington and Chelsea, the crash is no longer theoretical. It’s already arrived.

But on a brighter note, one canny estate agent told The Citizen: “With falling prices – there’s never been a better time to snag a bargain!”