Sales of homes worth over £1 million have soared to their highest level since the height of the 2007 housing boom and Northamptonshire is proving to be a boom area, a report found today.
In the East Midlands, including Northamptonshire, 47 homes sold for more than £1m in 2012, a 12 per cent increase on the previous year one of just three areas of the UK - alongside London and Scotland - where there was a year-on-year rise in the number of properties selling for seven figures.
Million pound properties out-performed the rest of the market in 2012, as sales of homes below this price bracket dropped off by three per cent year-on-year, the report said.
Across Britain, 7,397 homes with a price tag of over £1 million were snapped up last year, marking the highest number seen since 2007. Almost one quarter of all these sales took place in the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
By contrast, just four sales of million pound homes took place across Wales during 2012 and nine were made in North East England.
More than one in 20 (5.6%) homes sold in London in 2012 were worth over £1 million, with the English capital proving a strong pull for wealthy overseas buyers looking for a safe haven for their cash. London and the South East made up 85% of all million pound home sales last year.
Nitesh Patel, Lloyds TSB housing economist, said: “Strong demand from wealthy, cash rich buyers, from both the UK and overseas, as well as limited supply, has supported this sector of the market.
“As a result, sales at the very top end of the market are much closer to their peak levels than the market as a whole.”
The Government imposed a new seven pre cent stamp duty rate on homes worth over £2 million in March 2012.
Lloyds TSB used figures from the Land Registry and the Registers of Scotland for its findings.
Here are the numbers of homes which sold for over £1 million by region in 2012 and the year-on-year percentage change:
:: North East, 9, minus 40 per cent
:: North West, 79, minus 19 per cent
:: Yorkshire and the Humber, 38, minus 21 per cent
:: East Midlands, 47, 12 per cent
:: West Midlands, 58, minus 12 per cent
:: East of England, 458, minus 5 per cent
:: London, 4,820, 6 per cent
:: South East, 1,493, minus 5 per cent
:: South West, 240, minus 9 per cent
:: Wales, 4, minus 71 per cent
:: Scotland, 151, 14 per cent
:: Britain, 7,397, 2 per cent