£1m+ property market recovers in London

The London market for properties priced £1m and above staged a tentative recovery last year, with the number of sales completed increasing by 2%.

That contrasts with the rest of the country where £1m+ property transactions were down 11% on the previous year.

According to research carried out by top-end broker largemortgageloans.com, million pound property sales remain steady as a percentage of the total housing market, but London’s share of all sales increased from 52% in 2008 to 59% in 2009.

Paul Welch, managing director of largemortgageloans.com says:

"There are some fascinating insights in this latest million pound property research, not least of which is the fact that London has bucked the overall trend and is leading the recovery in this sector of the market.

"A flight to quality has seen international and domestic property purchasers increasing their investment in London’s million pound properties and this could signal the recovery of the market as a whole."

Wandsworth saw the biggest pick up with transaction levels up 32% last year, followed by Hammersmith & Fulham at 21% and Kensington & Chelsea at 11%.

But not all of the capital’s local authorities saw a recovery in the number of sales of £1m+ properties. Islington, Camden, Merton and Westminster saw falls of 10%, 8%, 7% and 2%.

Outside London, Stratford upon Avon, Reigate & Banstead and South Hams all recorded the number of sales of £1m+ homes increase by more than 20%.

Meanwhile Edinburgh saw sales of £1m+ properties plummet from 126 in 2007 to 100 in 2008, and just 47 last year, slipping from second to ninth in the ‘Top Ten Outside London’ table.