Britain : the expanding playground of property millionaires

19 February 2014

According to research carried out by Zoopla.co.uk, high demand for prime residential property resulted in a steep increase in prices at the exclusive end of the property market compared to the rest of the market, where house prices grew by just 1% overall. This created 47,024 more British property millionaires during 2012 and, due to rapid house price growth in London and the South East in particular, driven by demand from equity-rich buyers and a limited supply, no less than 36,815 new property millionaires were created in London alone, equivalent to around 100 new property millionaires being created every day in the capital throughout 2012.

London has almost two-thirds (64%) of Britain’s property millionaires, amounting to 182,583. Of these, 36,293 (12% of Britain’s total property millionaires) are in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, despite it being the smallest London Borough covering just 12km².

Average property values in Kensington are £2,186,471 and a staggering 64% of all homes in the Borough are currently worth over 1 million. Roman Abramovich, along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are just some of the A listers who live there and, to put values into perspective, floor space equivalent to an Amazon Kindle (228cm²) is worth an amazing £389.

Kensington Palace Gardens, dubbed ‘Billionaires Row’, has an average house price of £25 million and is home to Russian-American businessman Leonard Blavatnik, the UK’s 6th richest man and the steel magnate, Lakshmi Mittal, the wealthiest man in the UK with a personal fortune of around £9.8 billion.

Closely on the heels of Kensington is the Borough of Westminster, with 32,477 property millionaires in areas including Mayfair and Park Lane, followed by the Borough of Camden with 18,400 property millionaires and covering Primrose Hill, home to the likes of James Corden, Daniel Craig, Jamie Oliver and Ed Miliband.

Lawrence Hall of Zoopla.co.uk said “The top end of the property market operates seemingly in isolation to the rest of the market. Wealthier buyers are relatively impervious to the economic problems affecting the rest of the market, most notably when it comes to getting a mortgage. Foreign buyers in particular have gravitated towards top-end property in London over the last few years, which has pushed up demand and prices on more expensive property as they try to secure a limited supply of top-end homes in the capital.”