Number of properties sold for £1m plus increases

This was driven by the rise in the number of million-pound homes sold in the North East, the East Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, and the West Midlands.

Number of properties sold for £1m plus increases

The number of properties sold for £1m or more in Great Britain rose by 5% year-on-year in H1, Lloyds Banking Group has found.

A total of 6,891 of these properties were sold in H1, compared to 6,553 during the same period in 2018.

The overall rise is down to significant increases in the number of million-pound homes sold in four regions.

In the North East, the number rose from eight to 61 homes, the East Midlands 40 to 133, Yorkshire and the Humber 46 to 151 and the West Midlands 98 to 186.

Louise Santana, head of private banking, Lloyds Bank, said: “There has clearly been growing interest in properties outside the traditional markets of London and the South East, especially in the past 12 months.

“While the market in London and the South East has cooled in terms of volume of sales, average prices for million-pound-plus homes in these areas have still gone up by 13% and 19% respectively, which suggests the sales drop could be linked to availability of properties.

“This may explain why buyers are looking outside of traditional investment areas.”

The East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, North East and West Midlands saw significant growth in the value of million-pound plus properties too.

House prices in the East Midlands were up 75% in the first six months of 2019, with Yorkshire and the Humber (64%), the North East (59%) and West Midlands (36%) all also showing increases.

However the biggest increase was in Wales, where million-pound house prices were up 89% in the first half of this year.

Despite the growth in almost every other region in the country, London experienced a 5% drop in the sales of homes valued for a million pounds or more, decreasing from 3,720 houses sold in H1 2018 to 3,534 in H1 2019.

This trend was also marked in the South East of England, which saw no growth.

While London experienced a drop in total sales it still represents over half (51%) of all million-pound homes sold in H1, with the South East representing 22%.