According to the latest figures, 50 people are becoming property millionaires every day as a result of the housing boom.
Soaring prices mean the number of homes worth at least £1million has risen by a third over the past year to a record 80,000. In some hot-spots, property values have soared 55 per cent in only 12 months.
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A decade ago, just 3,400 people owned homes with seven-figure asking prices.
In 2001, the UK was home to 230,000 millionaires and according to experts; this is set to rise to 760,000 by 2010.
During 2006 the number of property millionaires in England and Wales has reached 78,219.
This compares to 59,400 property millionaires during the same period in 2005, showing a 32 per cent increase in the proportion of individuals who now own estates worth over £1 million.
The home of the million pound house
Over the last 12 months, London has been leading the way in housing the highest proportion of UK property millionaires.
At the end of September 2006, the total number of property millionaires reached an estimated 46,668 nearly 60 per cent of the UK total.
And as the usual housing trend goes, the South East wasnt far behind. The region boasted 19,040 property millionaires in 2006, up 28 per cent from the same period last year.
Matthew Wyles, Group Developer at the Portman Building Society, said: London and the South East continue to dominate the property millionaires league table this should come as no surprise.
City bonuses have been generous and plentiful in recent years and much of this wealth has poured into residential property.
The greatest increase, however, comes from the unsuspected North West. Average property prices in the regions cities of Liverpool and Manchester have seen increases of almost 15 per cent and have in turn contributed to a 37 per cent rise in the regions property millionaires, from 1,874 to 2,560.
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According to statistics from the Land Registry, most regions in the UK follow this impressive upward trend; with rises of 36 per cent in the West Midlands, 30 per cent in East Anglia and 3 per cent in the East Midlands.
However, the North and Yorkshire & Humberside have seen a drop in the number of property millionaires as the average selling prices for many of their towns fell over the year with, for example, Skipton and Kendal decreasing by an average of 8 per cent.
With the recent rise in interest rates, property investors and homebuyers alike are wary of the after-effects of a continuing hike, is it possible that we could see a similar situation to the devastating market crash in the 1990s?
Property expert and self-made property millionaire, Ajay Ahuja, said: It is very unlikely that we will see a crash like the 90s as interest rates would have to triple and there is nothing on the horizon that would suggest this.
According to Ahuja, there are other things that can cause such unforeseen crashes, such as abnormally high unemployment, punishing taxes for the ordinary working person and a withdrawal of the lenders from the market no longer willing to lend.
Hard times ahead for the first-time buyer
The big winners in the property market were those in the South who bought homes before prices took off in 1996, but the dramatic rise in house prices in the UK has given first-time buyers nothing but heartache.
In 1996 the average home was worth £60,000 compared with £185,000 today. In the exclusive London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the average asking price is now more than £1million.
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First-time buyers are facing tough times ahead, especially if they live in the high-demand areas, such as London and the South East. Even looking for a home outside of these areas with the intention of commuting in will stretch any first-timer to their limits.
Ahuja commented: First-time buyers are going to struggle if they are located in the South East and other prime areas where average first-time buyer properties are greater than four times their salary.
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The split between rental properties and owner occupiers are swaying way into the rental properties favour. Since the introduction of the buy-to-let mortgage now the first-time buyer has to compete with the investor, whether it be a novice or a professional.
A first-time buyer wanting to join the millionaire bracket would need to meet monthly mortgage repayments of more than £7,000 based on interest rates of 7 per cent and a 25-year term, and based on an average salary of £24,000 this is nearing mission impossible.
Ajays advice is to only buy if the mortgage repayments work out cheaper on a monthly basis, if not then wait and rent, or consider expanding your search criteria.
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Beware the property scams
Being a property millionaire doesnt necessarily mean that you have a bank balance of £1 million, and often when the debt of a mortgage is taken away, what you are left with is less than half that large sum of money.
But to say that you are a millionaire is appealing to most, if not all, of us and because of this, it is easy to give into the temptation of a get rich quick scam.
Following the festive season there will be many brochures littering your letterbox and emails filling your inbox, offering you a course on how to become a property millionaire.
The promise of becoming the next millionaire is enough to make you immediately sign up for the seminars and hand over your hard-earned cash, especially after the Christmas period.
However, this is when you should be wary. Handing your money over to companies that promise these investment opportunities could be the biggest mistake you will ever make because you never really know what you are actually investing in.
Ajay explained: These companies do make property millionaires, but they also make them debt millionaires too. This is because they enable you to buy overpriced properties with a Mickey Mouse discount, hence no deposit.
Under their method you could become a property billionaire, with a billion pounds of debt!
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