Million-pound home sales up 8%!!

More than 100 homes worth in excess of £1 million have been sold in

the South West this year as the top end of the market reached its

highest level since the peak of the housing market in 2007.

Lloyds TSB said there had been 3,375 sales of such properties

nationally in the first half of this year – an increase of 10 per cent

on the same period in 2010 and the largest total since the first part of

2007, when there were 3,680 sales.

The strength at the top end of the market was in marked contrast to

home sales generally, which saw a 9 per cent decline in the first half

of this year. In the South West, seven-figure property sales were up

8 per cent at 118, compared to a fall of 12 per cent for homes under that mark.

Lloyds TSB housing economist Suren Thiru said: "Strong demand

from wealthy cash-rich buyers both in the UK and from overseas, as well

as limited supply of such properties, has helped to boost the level of

activity at the very top end of the housing market."

London drove the rise in luxury sales, accounting for 79 per cent of the total increase. Almost two thirds of million

pound-plus home sales in the first six months of 2011 were in London.

The capital saw 2,163 sales in the first half of this year compared with 1,926 in the same period in 2010.

Kensington and Chelsea was the biggest luxury property hotspot,

with 461 such sales in the first half of 2011, while Westminster enjoyed

375 and Hammersmith and Fulham had 198, coming second and third

respectively.

Along with the South West, sales of high-end properties also went

up in the North East, Scotland, the East of England and the South East,

compared with the first half of 2010.

Outside southern England, Edinburgh was the top district with the

highest number of million pound-plus sales in the first half of this

year, with 26.

The North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate also came highly on the

list of districts outside the south, with nine such sales this year.

Million pound-plus sales remained the same in Wales, and

decreased generally in the North West, the East Midlands, Yorkshire and

the Humber and the West Midlands.

Despite the boost to the luxury market, million-pound sales made

up just 1.1 per cent of total sales for the first half of the year and

even in London they only accounted for 5.7 per cent, Lloyds TSB said.

The figures were taken from the Land Registry and Registers of Scotland.