£1 million home sales at highest ever
31/10/2014
The number of property sales worth £1 million or more is the highest it has even been, according to research from the UK’s largest mortgage provider, Lloyds Bank.
There were 6,143 houses over £1 million sold in the first half of 2014, the equivalent of 33 transactions a day. This is a 43% increase on last year, when sales totalled 4,198. Million pound house sales have grown by a massive 345% since the first half of 2009, when they were at their lowest point in the last decade, at 1,382.
Even though their demand has increased and they have outperformed the rest of the market, million pound homes only have a very small percentage of the market, totalling 1.3%. This has more than doubled since 2009, when the share was at 0.60%. Even in London, million pound sales account for just 7.6% of all sales.
There were 1,360 homes sold for at least two million pounds in the first half of 2014; 43% higher than over the first six months of 2013 when the number of sales totalled 949. Home selling for over £2 million accounted for 22% of all the million pound houses sold.
70% of homes sold costing over £1million in the UK were located in London. The South East had a 16% share and the east of England a 6% share.
Sarah Deaves, Private Banking Director at Lloyds Bank, commented:
"The number of homes sold for at least a £1 million is at a record high, with this sector of the housing market growing by almost a half in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2013. Property values in prime locations have been boosted by growing demand from wealthy, and often cash rich, buyers from the UK and overseas, as well as limited supply of such properties.
"Although demand has grown across all regions of Britain in 2014, the greatest concentration is in London -particularly the boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster."
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