£1m price tag home sales are down 12pc
Sales of homes worth over £1million in the West Midlands have dropped by 12 per cent, new figures revealed today. In total, 58 homes were sold for more than that price during 2012.
Nationally, top-end property sales increased by two per cent year-on-year in 2012, with Scotland, the East Midlands and London all seeing rises, Lloyds TSB found. Million pound properties out-performed the rest of the market in that year, as sales of homes below this price bracket dropped off by three per cent year-on-year, the report said.
Across Britain, 7,397 homes with a price tag of over £1m were snapped up last year, marking the highest number seen since 2007. Almost one quarter of all these sales took place in the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster. By contrast, just four sales of million pound homes took place across Wales during 2012 and nine were made in North East England.
More than one in 20 (5.6 per cent) homes sold in London in 2012 were worth over £1 million, with the English capital proving a strong pull for wealthy overseas buyers looking for a safe haven for their cash.
However, in terms of percentage increases, Scotland saw the strongest uplift in sales of million pound homes last year, with 151 homes sold. This represented a 14 per cent year-on-year rise.
Nitesh Patel, of Lloyds TSB, said: "Strong demand from wealthy, cash rich buyers, from both the UK and overseas, as well as limited supply, has supported this sector of the market."
