UK's market for million-pound homes doubles
The number of homes for sale across Britain with an asking price of £1 million or more has doubled in the past six years.
Many seaside locations became a 'race for space' among homebuyers during the coronavirus pandemic, but London still has the largest number of homes in that price bracket of any region, with Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Wandsworth topping the list collated by property site Rightmove. It recorded a 103 per cent increase in homes at this price point.
In commuter belt locations such as St Albans, Windsor and Maidenhead, Three Rivers and Waverley, about one in every five homes for sale now has a £1 million price tag.
The London Borough of Richmond became the latest area to reach the threshold for the first time, with average asking prices between January and April this year standing at £1,006,981.
Cornwall posted the biggest increase in that period, rising 246 per cent.
The number of areas outside London with a £1 million average rose from 30 to 66 after the pandemic, with just over five per cent now asking for seven figures compared with three per cent in 2019.
Mole Valley in Surrey emerged as the area which is increasingly becoming a million-pound market. More than a fifth (22 per cent) of homes for sale in towns such as Dorking and Leatherhead were priced at more than £1 million, an increase of 12 per cent in six years.
Colleen Babcock, a Rightmove property expert, described the surge in prices as 'substantial'.
'Since 2019, we've seen the number of million-pound homes for sale double. This isn't just happening in London; places like Cornwall, Uttlesford, and Somerset are also seeing big jumps in the number of high-value properties.
'The number of areas outside of London where the average price is a million pounds or more has also more than doubled, showing that the million-pound mark is becoming more common in various locations.'
Local areas included in Rightmove's research were those with at least 10 or more homes for sale during the time periods analysed.
Meanwhile, the annual rate of house price growth halved as a stamp duty holiday ended, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
The average UK house price increased by 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to April, halving from 7.0 per cent annual growth recorded in March this year.
Stamp duty discounts became less generous for some home buyers from April. Stamp duty applies in England and Northern Ireland.
Average house prices increased to £286,000 (3.0 per cent annual growth) in England, £210,000 (5.3 per cent) in Wales, and £191,000 (5.8 per cent) in Scotland in the 12 months to April 2025.
The average house price for Northern Ireland was £185,000 in the first quarter of 2025 – a 9.5 per cent increase annually.
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said: 'The UK housing market is still in recovery mode after the stamp duty cliff edge in April but prices are being kept firmly in check by an overhang of supply.
'We don't expect a rate cut before August but the weak state of the UK economy is putting downwards pressure on mortgage rates, which should support demand in the short-term.'
Kevin Roberts, managing director, mortgage services, at L & G, highlighted a recent wave of innovative mortgage products.
'Our broker data shows that first-time buyers are particularly active, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of purchases since the start of the year.'
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