Stock image: People looking at house price signs
(Picture: PA)There has been a huge rise in £1million properties across the UK, according to a new survey.
As many as 689,168 homes are worth £1 million, or one in 42 homes, in Britain, according to new research by estate agency Savills.
About 80 per cent of new property millionaires created in the past year live outside London while the number of them increased by only 8 per cent in the capital, The Times reported.
Property millionaires are people who own a home worth £1million or more, yet the size of the mortgage is not taken into consideration.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said there has been a “surge” in the number of £1million homes.
She explained to the newspaper it was “brought about by a pandemic-induced reassessment of housing need and the ability to lock into low interest rates, turbocharged by a stamp duty holiday”.
The majority of homes with a price tag of £1million or more outside London can be found in Elmbridge, Surrey which has been dubbed the “Beverly Hills of Britain”.
During the Covid pandemic, buyers sought larger homes with gardens outside of the capital.
It comes amid news London’s flats are back in demand.
Lucy Pendleton, of agents James Pendleton, said: “London is on manoeuvres once again. There’s been no exodus. In fact, many younger buyers chose to rent while the dust settled on the pandemic, and that’s the main reason why the lettings market has been red hot.
“These buyers, who put their purchases on hold, are being confronted by the reality that borrowing costs are going up. Many of them are first-time buyers who are desperately playing catch-up. We expect the prices of flats in London to put in a robust performance in 2022 for this reason.”
