Sales of £1m plus properties down 11% in the first half of this year with London leading the fall according to data from Lloyds Bank.

The number of properties sold for more than £1 million has reduced by 11% from 6,303 in the first half of 2014 to 5,599 in the first half of this year says Lloyds Bank.

Sarah Deaves, Private Banking Director at Lloyds Bank suggests the decline has been due to the higher stamp duty introduced last December and uncertainty about the outcome of the general election.

These house prices are out of reach to most first time buyers with higher stamp duty tax and political uncertainty deterring home movers.

London has been leading the decline in sales by 15% for £1 million plus homes from 4,357 in the first half of 2014 to 3,703 in the first half of this year.

Prime locations still in London

Even with the falls in London the capital has two-thirds of all property sales valued at £1 million plus in the UK. The largest numbers of sales are in Kensington & Chelsea with 559 followed by Westminster with 496.

Other significant central London locations are Wandsworth with 344 sales of £1m plus, Hammersmith and Fulham with 316 and Camden with 279.

According to Sarah Deaves, the sale of multi-million pound homes in the £5 million to £10 million price range for the first half of the year has reduced by 15% when compared to the previous year.

For properties selling between £2 million and £5 million the fall is even greater at 26%.

For older homeowners the considerable value in their property allows the equity release mortgage buyer to access money and gift to a child or grandchild the deposit on their first home.

Stamp Duty could be one of the reasons for the decrease as a buyer such as home movers, of a £2 million home would pay £53,750 more tax and for a £5 million home would have to pay another £163,750 more tax than this time last year.

Some areas outside London have increased

The largest region outside of London is the South East where sales of £1m plus sector fell by 9% to 1,037 in the first half of 2015 from 1,137 a year earlier.

Despite a fall of 11% across the country, the Lloyd's report shows some areas have seen increases such as Scotland with sales rising by 158% from 43 for the first half of the year in 2014 to 111 this year.

The only other regions with an increase in sales were the East of England higher by 8%, Yorkshire and the Humber up by 10% and Wales rising by 29%.

Other locations showed strong results including Virginia Water, Cobham and Beaconsfield with sales of 86 which is higher than the combined sales in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and Wales.

Virginia Water in the Borough of Runnymede is Britain’s most expensive town with an average house price of £1.17m. The second is Cobham in Surrey with an average cost of £1.04m and third is Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire at £1m for a home.

The sales of £1 million plus properties only accounts for 1.3% of all residential sales in the UK which has tripled since 2005and for London these homes now account for just 8% of all sales.

The sales of £1 million plus properties only accounts for 1.3% of all residential sales in the UK which has tripled since 2005 and for London these homes now account for just 8% of all sales.

For remortgage buyers with higher value properties, they have the opportunity to release capital which they can use to improve their home.

What are your next steps?

Talk to our London City Mortgage advisers if you are an older homeowner releasing equity from your property, we can recommend the lifetime mortgage to access wealth for home or garden improvements or gift to a family member or friend.

At LCM our mortgage brokers can provide advice if you are a first time buyer, moving home, want to remortgage your existing home to a new cost effective mortgage deal or are a buy-to-let investor.

Learn more by using the equity release calculator, property value tracker chart and mortgage monthly cost calculator. Start with a free mortgage quote or call us and we can take your details.

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