Ordinary members house prices are falling as mortgage lending slumps to its lowest level in 10 years but the number of mansions fetching over a milliomn pounds more than doubled during the last year, according to the Halifax.Britain’s biggest mortgage lender analysed Land Registry data and reports that nearly 3,000 properties were sold for more than £1m – an increase of 118 per cent on the year before.
Nine in 10 of the million-pound-plus sales recorded by the Land Registry were located in London. While properties in this bracket account for less than 1 per cent of the total across Britain, they represent nearly one in 20 – or 4.5 per cent – of the market in the capital. And the proportion is rising; the number of million-pound-plus sales in London increased by 134 per cent.
There is growing confidence at the higher end of the market. There were more than 7,000 properties for sale in London last month with asking prices of more than £1m. That’s an increase of more than 20 per cent on the year before.
Of course, asking isn’t the same thing as getting. But the Land Registry data demonstrates that six-figure sales are becoming more commonplace in the capital despite falling prices elsewhere across the country.
Explanations include London’s prominent position in global financial services and reputation for fair treatment of foreigners in law and taxation. Russian oligarchs and American plutocrats find the stucco mansions of Kensington and Chelsea, Hampstead and Highgate pleasant and safe places to park wealth acquired elsewhere.
And here we were thinking we are all in this together.
