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Million-pound property sales rocket in the North of England

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
15/12/2017

Sales of million-pound properties in northern England strongly outperformed many other parts of the country in the first six months of 2017, according to Lloyds Bank.

The lender found that purchases of prime properties in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber rose by 55% and 45% respectively.

Increases were also seen in the West Midlands (up 33%) and the South East (up 15%).

Down overall

But the overall picture was negative, with a 1% drop in the number of properties sold for more than a million pounds across Great Britain in the first half of the year.

There were 6,613 sales in total, down from 6,684 during the same period last year.

Scotland saw the biggest drop in million-pound property sales – down by 35%, followed by the East Midlands (down by 27%) and Wales (down by 31%). All three of these regions also experienced an overall decline in house sales.

In London million-pound home sales fell by 7% from 4,230 to 3,940. However, the vast majority of £1 million house purchases (83%) were still concentrated in London and the South East.

Sarah Deaves, private banking director at Lloyds Bank, said: “In the first six months of 2017 we saw a modest decrease in the number of houses being sold for more than one million pounds, together with a fall in the average price of top-end homes.

“However, sales in northern England and the West Midlands appear to have bucked the trend, with buyers making high value purchases perhaps taking advantage of lower borrowing rates.”