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* Fewer enquiries from China, Middle East, Russia- estateagents
* Fall in oil price, values of Chinese stocks, rouble hitdemand
* Property tax rises also cool demand for central Londonproperty
By Costas Pitas and Ana Nicolaci da Costa
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Crises at home and turmoil onworld markets may have taken the shine off London's luxuryproperty market for Chinese, Russian and Middle Easterninvestors: some are even looking to sell up.
From Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern oil barons tonewly-minted Chinese entrepreneurs, foreign buyers have driven aspending spree on London property over the past two decades,snapping up everything from opulent homes to iconic commercialproperty.
London is not alone. Wealthy overseas buyers have beeninvesting in other cosmopolitan cities such as Sydney and NewYork, where property purchases are also viewed as a prestigiousinsurance policy against changes of fortune.
But oil has lost nearly two thirds of its value since mid2014, the Russian rouble has more than halved and Chinese growthis slowing. The scale of this wealth destruction combined withproperty tax rises in London has prompted investors to pause,estate agents said.
"There's definitely been less (interest) ... over the lastsix months or so with the oil price and currency issues for theRussians," said Ed Mead, executive director of Douglas & Gordonestate agents which sells some of London's most expensive homes.
"If people have bought a property here, which a lot ofChinese people have done over the last few years, we aredefinitely seeing more of them coming to us, saying look can yousell it for me."
Data from estate agents and property consultancies showsthere has been a fall in transactions in some of the mostexpensive areas of central London, a decline in asking pricesand fewer Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern buyers.
Around 4 percent of prime London property buyers wereChinese in the first half of 2015 but that fell to 3 percentduring the second half, according to data from property firmSavills.
London ranks as the best city in the world for the globalultra-rich taking into account factors such as quality of life,business and leisure, according to the consultancy arm of estateagent Knight Frank, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Singaporeand Shanghai.
MOSCOW-ON-THAMES
There was an even sharper fall in the number of MiddleEastern and North African buyers in 2015, with the proportion ofthose purchasing homes in central London's most expensive areamore than halving to 4 percent from 10 percent in 2014.
"People like the Qataris ... a year ago were big buyers andsovereign wealth funds too in London," said Charlie Ellingworth,who co-founded firm Property Vision which helps top-end buyersfind homes worth more than 1 million pounds.
"By all accounts that's going into reverse."
The oil price has fallen by almost 60 percent since late2014, hitting its lowest since 2003 in January, as near-recordlevels of output have caused currency devaluations and pushedSaudi Arabia to a record budget deficit.
"When you've got an environment like this: the oil price hasgone through the floor, the stock market is falling all over theplace, everyone just sits like a frozen rabbit," Ellingworthsaid.
London was once dubbed 'Londongrad' or 'Moscow-on-Thames' asthe city of choice for rich Russians and other residents offormer Soviet republics but enquiries from Russians fell 60percent year-on-year in 2015, he said.
In prime central London, the number of transactions fell bynearly a fifth in the last six months of 2015 compared to thesame period in 2014, according to Knight Frank, with askingprices often needing to decline by 10 percent or more.
Prices fell in some of the most attractive postcodes toforeign buyers including Knightsbridge, home to department storeHarrods, Notting Hill and Chelsea.
TAX PLEASE
As London has traditionally benefited from far-off crises,some estate agents said the pause in buying from Russia, Chinaand the Middle East was also being driven by a rise in UKtaxation.
In an attempt to allay the anger of locals priced out of theBritish capital, finance minister George Osborne has increasedthe taxation foreign buyers have to pay.
Osborne has raised the amount of a property levy known asstamp duty paid on homes worth more than just under a millionpounds, hiked the tax on properties bought through a companystructure and cut mortgage interest relief for landlords.
"There has been (a decline) but that is probably as much todo with what George Osborne has done as with what the Russianshave done themselves," said Charles McDowell, an agent whomainly helps buyers find properties in some of the capital'smost desirable areas.
Multi-million pound properties are regularly sold in Londonwith a seven-bedroom home with six bathrooms, a jacuzzi, sauna,cinema and two terraces currently on the market for 55 millionpounds ($80 million) in Belgravia, one of the most expensiveparts of Europe.
Jonathan Hewlett, head of London sales at Savills, said thatin the long term the capital still had a well-establishedreputation worldwide as a place to invest.
"I think when you talk to people from overseas, they stillsee London as a very safe, nice place to live, safe forsecurity, safe for ownership of property," he said. ($1 = 0.6882 pounds) (Writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and AnnaWillard)
