Study - London still home to the most £1m+ transactions

A study by Henry Dannell, a specialist mortgage broker, has discovered how London remains the nation’s million-pound property market hotspot despite a challenging year that saw the capital trail the rest of the UK where house price appreciation is concerned. 

Henry Dannell researched property market transactions over the last year looking at what percentage of homes sold in each region came in at £1 million or more. 

Nationwide outlook

The data finds that across England and Wales there have been 13,018 properties purchased at £1 million or more so far in 2021. This equates to just 3% of the 472,964 residential transactions to have completed across the entire market. 

However, the London market has the highest level of transactions taking place at £1 million or more. 6,312 transactions took place last year at this price threshold, 12% of all market activity seen across the London market. 

The South East saw the second-highest level of £1 million-plus transactions but trails London substantially, with these sales accounting for just 4% of total market activity, followed by the East of England (2%) and the South West (2%). 

London market

Kensington and Chelsea remain top of the million pound London property market. The data shows that 59% of all homes sold across the royal borough in 2021 did so for £1 million or more. 

Westminster saw the second-highest level of £1 million-plus market activity, with 44% of all properties sold in the borough doing so at or above this price threshold.

Camden ranks in third place with 37% of homes sold going for £1 million or more, with Hammersmith and Fulham (34%) and Richmond (29%) also occupying the top five.

In comparison, not a single transaction registered across the Essex borough Barking and Dagenham was at or above £1 million in 2021, with Newham also seeing just 0.3% of all transactions take place at this tier of the market.

Director of Henry Dannell, Geoff Garrett, commented: “Although the London market has generally trailed much of the UK where top-line property price appreciation is concerned, it remains the predominant market for property purchases at one million pounds or more by quite some margin.”

“While the pandemic and ongoing advice to work from home has dented the appetites of domestic London buyers to a certain extent, a consistent stream of foreign interest has slowly been building across the top tier of the London market.”

Garrett concluded: “Of course, these transactions only account for a small proportion of total market activity but this early sign of market confidence amongst high-end buyers bodes very well for the year ahead.”