Average property prices have broken the £1m barrier outside of London for the first time, despite falling sales nationally, a new report has found.
According to research from Lloyds Bank, the most expensive towns outside of the capital are Virginia Water, Cobham and Beaconsfield, with an average house price of over £1m.
Despite these rises, the number of property sales worth at least £1m across the UK has fallen for the first six months of the year, the first decline since 2012.
Nationally, sales of property £1m or more are down 11% compared to the same period in 2014, from 6,303 to 5,599. This is in stark contrast to the 46% increase seen in the first half of 2014.
Since the first half of 2005, the number of million pound home sales has grown 264% to 1,540.
While the top end of the market outperformed the rest last year, the decline in million pound home sales this year has tracked the rest of the market, with sales of properties under £1m also falling by 11%.
Sales of million pound homes in London fell by 15% from 4,357 to 3,703 in the first half of the year, while in the South East sales fell by 9% from 1,137 to 1,037, compared to a year earlier.
In Scotland, the sale of million pound homes has more than doubled from 43 in in the first half of 2014 to 111 properties a year later. Yorkshire and the Humber (10%) and the East of England (8%) also saw an increase.
Sarah Deaves, private banking director at Lloyds Bank, said: “The number of homes sold for over £1m has fallen sharply over the past year, with a pronounced slowdown in the prime and Central London market. This may be the effect of the new Stamp Duty rates introduced last December and uncertainty generated by the election in May.
“However, the regional picture is much more mixed and we’re seeing the emergence of towns where the average price is at least £1 million. Whilst there are several London neighbourhoods where prices are already at this elevated level, outside of the capital this is a first.”
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