Are you a millionaire yet? Give it another 14 years. As house prices continue to rise, the number of UK homes worth £1 million or more is expected to more than triple by 2030, according to a report by Santander Mortgages, making one in four London homeowners into property millionaires. As it is, the proportion of million-pound homes is relatively small, the research found — less than 500,000 in the UK and only 1.77 per cent of the nation’s housing stock. By 2020 this will rise to 689,000, and 2.37 per cent, and by 2030 it will be 1.6 million, and 5.14 per cent.
Of course, where you live makes all the difference. Less than 1 per cent of properties in the northeast, Yorkshire and Humber, northwest, Scotland and the east Midlands will be worth more than £1 million in 2030. There are five counties or unitary authorities in the UK where not a single home is worth £1 million at present, including Blaenau Gwent, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Torfaen and Bridgend. The Isles of Scilly has one.
Professor Paul Cheshire, the LSE’s professor of economic geography, who helped to compile the research, says: “By 2030 more owners will enjoy millionaire status, as homes that many would consider modest fetch seven-figure prices in the most sought-after areas.”
We ask the agents about the top ten most expensive counties in the UK.
1. Greater London
London tops the league with 8.9 per cent of its stock worth more than £1 million. By 2030, this will rise to 24.8 per cent. Some traditionally less pricey boroughs are filling up with property millionaires, such as Hackney, where, according to Land Registry statistics, the average price paid as of December 2015 was £638,284. “This means average property prices would need to increase by 56 per cent between now and 2020, which is not inconceivable,” says Noah Ellis, the head of acquisitions and research at Londonewcastle, the property developer. “City Road, a corridor to east London’s silicon roundabout, is a hive of activity. Two-bedroom flats in developments here, such as Atlas, frequently exceed £1 million. A quick search on Rightmove would suggest that period houses around Hoxton, Shoreditch and London Fields are already worth considerably more than £1 million.”
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2. Windsor and Maidenhead
“Next to Windsor Great Park are some of the most expensive houses in the country,” says Edward Heaton, of Heaton & Partners, a property search agency. Indeed, 6.6 per cent of the county’s property stock is worth more than £1 million. According to research by Savills, property prices in the area have increased by 44 per cent in the ten years up to 2015, while Hamptons International named Hurley, with its village pubs and shops, as the most expensive high street to live on outside London.
3. Surrey
Where are the million-pound homes in Surrey? “Where aren’t they?” says Paul Frost, of Prime Purchase, a buying agency. “St George’s Hill and Oxshott keep the prices well into the multimillions. Those looking for a more country feeling head for the ‘Guildford villages’ where a village green, local shops, nearby schools and the fact that it is less than an hour on the train to central London mean prices regularly stray into the £2 million and £3 million brackets.” Bill Spreckley, a search agent at Stacks Property Search, says: “The more expensive areas follow the A3 and the railway line in a southwest direction heading out of London: Esher, Cobham, Guildford, Godalming and Haslemere.”
4. Buckinghamshire
Top roads in Beaconsfield, such as Ledborough Lane, are the “millionaires’ rows” of the area, with a £10 million house for sale there at the moment, says Mark Rimell, a partner at Strutt & Parker’s country department. “A house sold for £6 million on nearby Penn Road, for £4 million on Burkes Road, and we have a house for sale at £4.725 million
on the outskirts of these areas.”
In Gerrards Cross, where 50 per cent of buyers have moved from London, the average property costs in excess of £1 million.
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“Buyers come here in search of bigger houses with better proportions, larger gardens and commuter links into London,” says Nick Pounce, the head of Savills’ Amersham office. “Many buyers focus their search on the centres around Amersham and Beaconsfield so they’re in easy reach of the train stations with fast services. The most coveted villages include The Chalfonts, Coleshill and Penn.”
5. Hertfordshire
“ ‘Smartfordshire’, as it’s known by those who live outside its borders, has a history of affluent homeowners and a long list of super villages,” says Harriett Brownell, of Private Property Search. “Waiting buyers may be holding out for one of the lovely red-brick Georgian houses Much Hadham is known for, or a sprawling early 20th-century mansion on several acres with a great view in Essendon.”
About 3.1 per cent of the housing stock in Hertfordshire is worth more than £1 million, that is 14,976 homes. This number is predicted to rise to 56,374 by 2030. The priciest homes include Ashbourne Manor, a grade II listed Victorian country house in Widford, near Ware, with the coat of arms of its owners, Viscount and Viscountess Dangan, on the dining-room ceiling. It is on the market for £3.85 million.
6. Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire’s million-pound count is not quite as high as Hertfordshire’s, with 8,175 homes worth more than £1 million, but that is still 3 per cent of its stock, a proportion expected to rise to 8.4 per cent by 2030. Henley-on-Thames is a hotspot, where average detached houses sell for £1.19 million, though the most expensive property for sale in Oxfordshire is a £19 million, grade II listed Georgian house with 13 bedrooms and 257 acres in Kingstone Lisle, on the market with Strutt & Parker.
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In Oxford properties are a little cheaper, with the average detached home going for £806,526.
7. Dorset
There are parts of Poole, a unitary authority separate from Dorset, which, after London, Manhattan and Moscow, have been named the most expensive place in the world to live. Nevertheless, there are at the moment under 2,000 homes worth £1 million in the area. This number is expected to rise to just under 6,000 by 2030.
Robin Gould, of Prime Purchase, a buying agency, says: “The obvious place in Poole for expensive homes is Sandbanks, where pretty much everything, including flats, is more than £1 million.” Savills is selling a five-bedroom, architect-designed home in Branksome Park, Poole, for £2.75 million. It is located on the desirable side of one of the most sought-after roads and less than a mile from the beach.
8. West Berkshire
“West Berkshire has what I would describe as the first proper countryside west of London,” Heaton says. “There is a perfect mix of pretty farmhouses and country homes in leafy, rural surrounds that don’t have the suburban feel of counties like Surrey. Villages such as Inkpen and Kintbury are popular, and the Woodhays have the greatest draw, attracting prices to match. For £1 million you can buy a pretty, four-bedroom detached cottage in a good village.”
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The most expensive areas are around Hungerford and villages such as Lambourn and Chaddleworth.
9. Bath and northeast Somerset
The proportion of £1 million properties in Bath and Somerset villages is 2.1 per cent, and is expected to rise by 2030 to 6.3 per cent as the city outperforms many areas in the UK. Claire Owen, the senior buying consultant at The Buying Solution, says: “The city is undergoing regeneration, which is likely to underpin demand. The cultural centre of Bath is becoming a popular destination for British and international property buyers.”
10. Brighton and Hove
At the moment, Brighton and Hove has a slightly below-average proportion of £1 million-plus properties, at 1.4 per cent, but this will change by 2030 when they increase to 6.9 per cent — above the predicted UK average of 5.14 per cent.
Sally Fraser, of Stacks Property Search, says, “Three-bedroom Victorian terraced homes in the Clifton area, which is a close to the centre of Brighton, are just below the £1 million mark. In the Clifton and Montpelier areas prices range from £1.75 million to more than £2 million. “Roedean shouldn’t be overlooked, where some of the new glass box-style houses command prices of £2 million to £3.5 million.”
Next in line
The areas outside the south with the most £1 million homes
1. Cambridgeshire 1.1 per cent of housing stock worth more than £1 million in 2015, rising to 4.3 per cent by 2030
2. Cheshire East 1.1 per cent in 2015, rising to
3.3 per cent by 2030
3. Warwickshire 0.8 per cent, rising to 3.1 per cent by 2030
4. Rutland 0.8 per cent, rising to 3.4 per cent
by 2030
5. York 0.7 per cent, rising to 2.6 per cent
by 2030