Number of London homes sold for £1m+ doubles

Last year, a whopping one in four London homes was sold for at least £500,000, according to new data released by Nationwide.

That’s almost double the amount of London homes that were sold for £500,000 or more in 2007 (13%).

And the number of London houses sold for £1m or more has doubled too.

In 2007, only 3% of London housing transactions saw prices of £1m or more. In 2013, that jumped to 6%.

London house prices in the first three months of this year were some 20% higher than before the financial crisis, according to Nationwide.

The rest of the country, meanwhile, saw house prices that were 2% lower than pre-crisis levels.

“Interestingly, price growth in London and the South East appears to be being driven by the top end of the market, with higher priced locations recording stronger price growth,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist.

“This pattern accords with housing transactions data, which shows that higher priced properties in London and the South East have accounted for a higher proportion of transactions.”