One in 20 are property millionaires

Soaring property prices are turning thousands more people into millionaires.

One in every 20 households in London has assets worth seven figures or more, researchers revealed yesterday.

Three years ago, Inland Revenue figures showed that there were about 230,000 millionaires in Britain.

Now the figure is likely to be close to double that, given a 64 per cent jump in house prices, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said.

It defines household wealth as the value of people's property, investments and other assets, minus any borrowings such as a mortgage.

The CEBR estimates that 175,000 or 41 per cent of the country's millionaires live in the capital.

Another 90,000 households in the South-East have accumulated wealth of more than £1million, followed by 32,000 in the South-West. There are just 4,000 millionaires in Northern Ireland and only 7,000 in the North-East.

But the sharp rise in household wealth could lead to the Government looking to increase tax on homes, researchers said.

One option was to increase the rate of stamp duty on properties bought for more than £500,000 from four per cent - but this was likely to be highly unpopular.