Property millionaires on the rise

Posted: 24 Apr 2006 10:03:23 GMT

Last year, the number of property millionaires in England and Wales increased by 14 per cent to almost 60,000.

New research from Portman Building Society indicates that 59,827 houses were worth more than £1 million at the end of 2005, which compares to only 4,677 at the end of 1995.

While the staggering house price rises in the UK have been a property investor's dream, the average homebuyer is now finding it increasingly difficult to get a foot on the property ladder, with the London market unsurprisingly leading the way.

There were 30,000 properties in the capital worth £1 million or more in December 2005 and recent reports suggest that high city bonuses in March have pushed even more houses above the threshold.

In the south-east, there are around 13,000 property millionaires and another 2,348 are situated in the south-west.

While Wales has seen some of the fastest rates of house price growth in the last decade, it still contains only 243 properties worth more than £1 million, while there are another 354 in the north.

Interestingly, the number of property millionaires in both Yorkshire and the north-west increased by 182 per cent last year, while the number fell in East Anglia and in the West Midlands.


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