Market for £1m homes booms

The massive increase in property prices is thrown into sharp relief today by figures showing the number of £1million homes for sale has almost doubled in a year.

A new report shows there are 1,099 properties in England for sale at ? 1million or more, up from 600 in August 2001, an increase of 83 per cent.

The figures, compiled from a database of more than 200,000 properties, show 59 per cent of the million-plus homes are in London and a further 38 per cent in the inner Home Counties. Only three per cent are in the north, mostly in Cheshire.

David Lundholm, director of assertahome.com, which compiled the report, said: "We now have 1,099 homes at more than £1 million, and more than 6,000 at between £500,000 and £1 million. The booming house market has made the million-pound home more common.

"It's not just number of rooms or size of land that dictates value. Location continues to drive house prices and the more exclusive the area, the more property is likely to be worth."

The postcode with far and away the most £1 million-plus homes for sale is NW8, St John's Wood, with 147. Next come W1, Regent's Park (52) and W2, Bayswater (40).

St John's Wood, one of the costliest places to live in London, has had its fair share of celebrity residents including Sir Paul McCartney, Kate Moss, Gary Lineker, Noel and Liam Gallagher and clothes designer Jeff Banks. Novelist Jackie Collins was once a resident, and the late cricket commentator Brian Johnston once described the area - home to Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded - as a "lovely place" to live.

Outside London, Weybridge remains the most exclusive postcode with 22 million-pound properties available. Next is neighbouring Cobham, with 18. Bournemouth is third, with 16. In the north, Altrincham leads with seven properties suitable for millionaires, Macclesfield has six, and Leeds four.

For properties that have been sold, rather than put on offer, the increase is less dramatic but still pronounced. According to the Land Registry, 705 homes were sold for more than £1 million between April and June 2002, up from 516 in the same period of 2001.

But the Land Registry also recorded increases of 60 per cent in sales between £1.25 million and £1.5 million (166, up from 102) and 30 per cent in sales over £2 million (131, up from 105). The borough with the most million-plus sales was Kensington and Chelsea, with 183, including 52 at more than £2 million. Next came Westminster with 124 sales at £1million-plus, including 33 at more than £2 million. Camden had 30 £1 million-plus sales Wandsworth 27, Richmond and Hammersmith and Fulham 26 each.

In Surrey, 60 homes were sold for £1 million or more between April and June, in Hertfordshire 20, in Oxfordshire 16 and in Hampshire 13.

Simon Tyler of mortgage specialists Chase de Vere had a more downbeat explanation for the boom: "It is possible some people who bought expensive homes out of City bonuses and stock market gains are now having to sell as their incomes have been severely cut or have disappeared altogether."

New research also reveals sky-high central London house prices are pushing young high earners into locations never before seen as desirable. Barclays Bank found 26 per cent of people on more than £60,000 a year in Poplar and Canning Town were aged under 30. The yuppies of 2002 were also in North Southwark, Bermondsey, Bethnal Green and Bow.

Gordon Rankin of Barclays said: "They're moving to get more for their money, while staying close to central London, its jobs and social life."

The same research found the area with the most residents on £60,000 a year or more was Kensington and Chelsea, with 12.5 per cent of the population in this bracket. Next was Richmond Park (10.4 per cent), the Cities of London and Westminster (10.1 per cent) and Hampstead and Highgate (9.8 per cent).