Sales of million pound properties across Britain in 2004 were 36% higher than in 2003, according to new Halifax research.

The Halifax review, tracks all residential property sales of at least £1 million using data from the Land Registry for England and Wales and the Registers of Scotland.

Under the review, 4,331 million pound properties were sold in 2004 compared with 3,188 properties in 2003, following virtually no change between 2002 and 2003.

As expected, London led the way last year, delivering a 38% increase following an 8% decline in 2003. 2,608 properties were sold for over £1 million in the capital in 2004: 724 more than in 2003 (1,884). In addition, London accounted for almost two-thirds (60%) of all million pound property sales in Britain in 2004. Since 1995, however, London’s share of all the country’s million pound sales has fallen from 79% as the number of sales in this exclusive price bracket has risen dramatically elsewhere across Britain.

After two years when house price growth was very much about the ‘Year of the North’, it was inevitable that there would be increases in the number of £1 million property sales outside London and the South East, albeit from a very low base.

28 local authority districts saw their first million pound property sales during 2004. The vast majority of these authorities were in the north and the midlands and included Barnsley, City of Nottingham, City of Derby, Coventry, Liverpool, Craven, Forest of Dean, Wear Valley and Teesdale.

Martin Ellis, Chief Economist at the Halifax, commented:

“The number of properties sold for over a £1 million resumed its strong upward trend last year. While London leads the way, expensive properties are becoming a more common feature elsewhere in the UK too. In fact, there were sales of at least one million pound property in 244 local authority districts across the UK last year.”
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