Sales of £1m homes hit highest since 2007

Sales of homes worth over £1m have soared to their highest level since the height of the 2007 housing boom, a report found today.

Top-end property sales increased by two per cent year on year in 2012, with Scotland, the East Midlands and London all seeing rises, Lloyds TSB found.

Million-pound properties out-performed the rest of the market in 2012, as sales of homes below this price bracket dropped off by three per cent year on year, the report said.

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Across Britain, 7,397 homes with a price tag of over £1m were snapped up last year, marking the highest number seen since 2007. Almost one quarter of all these sales took place in the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

By contrast, just four sales of million-pound homes took place across Wales during 2012 and nine were made in north-east England.

More than one in 20 (5.6 per cent) homes sold in London in 2012 were worth over £1m, with the capital proving a strong pull for wealthy overseas buyers looking for a safe haven for their cash. London and the South-East made up 85 per cent of all million-pound home sales last year.

However, in terms of percentage increases, Scotland saw the strongest uplift in sales of £1m homes last year, with 151 properties sold. This represented a 14 per cent year-on-year rise.

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The East Midlands recorded the second highest surge, with a 12 per cent rise and 47 transactions recorded.

London registered a smaller six per cent increase, although 4,820 million-pound home sales were made in the capital last year, by far outstripping the rest of the country. Some 1,790 of these sales took place in Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

Nitesh Patel, Lloyds TSB housing economist, said: “Strong demand from wealthy, cash-rich buyers, from both the UK and overseas, as well as limited supply, has supported this sector of the market.”