Not too sure about SW11, but I have spent the best part of the last 10 months or so looking at properties (3 bed maisonettes or terraced houses) in Balham, Earlsfield, Wimbledon and Putney, while trying to sell a property in SE London.
It’s hard to measure scientifically, and it’s all a mix of impressions, anecdotal feedbacks, direct and indirect experience of ourselves, friends, acquaintances, etc, but, in summary:
Yes, the real estate market in the whole of London has slowed down a lot. Volumes have plummeted, i.e. fewer and fewer properties are being sold. Prices have come down but a massive crash is IMHO unlikely, at least as long as interest rates and unemployment are both low.
The new stamp duty and the new tax rules on buy to let have killed the buy to let market. These things would have probably had the same effect regardless of Brexit. BTL means mostly one and two bedroom properties, so little impact on larger properties.
Agree that asking prices have not come down and are totally unrealistic and unreliable. One needs to look at actual sold prices. I keep receiving lots and lots of rightmove price reduction notifications in my inbox. This would have been unthinkable 5 years ago.
I have seen a couple of properties on sale now for less than they were bought at 3-4 years ago. One example is this in Balham,
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-price ... ry=england
bought for £850k 4 years ago and last seen on sale for ca. £830k. Not sure if it was sold in the end, nor at what price (the land registry can take a few months to show a transaction).
I don’t know how reliant the Nappy Valley has been on banking. AFAIK, most bankers have frowned upon moving south of the river. Do you know Alex Cartoon, a satire on City life? In this strip, dated July 2017, the authors make fun of a banker who is going through a divorce and is forced to move to, shock and horror, Balham (!), while his wife and family stay in the family home:
http://alexcartoon.com/cartoons/7041_17 ... ur_900.gif
Back office bank employees may live in the Nappy Valley (IT, accountants, etc) but very few of those people (maybe the intergalactic head of IT…) get £300k bonuses AFAIK.
The Nappy Valley is typically home to people who live there; rich plutocrats who live among New York London Dubai LA etc don’t tend to buy houses here; drug lords dictators and other dodgy characters who need to launder their hard-earned gains do not typically buy houses here to keep them empty, etc. So the price reductions in the Nappy Valley are probably lower than in areas like Chelsea or Knightsbridge; but this also means that there will be fewer sales as people only move when forced to for life changes (new job, divorces, upsizing, etc.).
So, where does this leave you? I think the key thing is when your little one will start primary. If it’s next year, I’d probably rent near a good primary, and only buy after a year or so, because there are not many properties on the market and it may easily take a very long time to find one you like, negotiate the price, etc. If it’s 2 or 3 years away you have more options.