Million Pound Homes in High Demand

The highest number of £1,000,000+ property sales since 2007 were recorded in the first half of this year, underlining the strength of the property market at the upper end partly supported by the increase in the numbers of foreign purchasers.

Some 3,375 sales of £1m+ properties were recorded in the first half of the year which was an increase of 10% in the same period as 2010 and not substantially down on the 3,680 sales in the first half of 2007.

In the capital, more than half of London’s top property sales in 2010 were made to overseas buyers.

The research by both Hawker Beechcraft Corporation and the TSB released this month were compiled with data partly based on Land Registry Data for England and Wales and the Land Registry for Scotland.

Suren Thiru, Lloyds TSB housing economist, said: “The number of homes sold for at least £1 million has increased significantly over the past year, in marked contrast to the rather more subdued picture across the rest of the housing market. Strong demand from wealthy cash rich buyers both in the UK and from overseas, as well as limited supply of such properties, has helped to boost the level of activity at the very top end of the housing market.”

London drove the rise in luxury sales, accounting for 79% of the total increase. Almost two-thirds of million pound-plus home sales in the first six months of 2011 were in London.  A quarter of all the million pound homes sold in the first six months of 2011 were in just two local authority districts in London: Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.

Despite the boost at the top end of the market, million pound sales made up just 1.1% of total sales for the first half of the year and even in London they only accounted for 5.7%.

The overall average price of property in England and Wales was a little over £162,000 which is about 2.6 times that of the prices in 1995 with an average annual decline of 2.6% as at the end of October.

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