Bloomberg business week reports that Britain had 11 percent more houses valued at 1 million pounds or more available for purchase in the third quarter than it did a year earlier, Investec Specialist Bank said in a report today.
About 21,982 such properties were for sale with a combined value of 48.7 billion pounds, up 4.8 percent, according to research from primelocation.com commissioned by Investec, which said the market is “holding up well,” with a “huge” increase in mortgage applications in the category. The average valuation was 2.22 million pounds, a year-to-year decrease of 5.1 percent.
“This market is very international, especially in London,” said Jack Jones, head of Investec’s specialized banking lending team. “This has resulted in some people deciding to opt out of the capital’s million-pound property market and move to the home counties, which is more affordable.”
About 105 of the properties were valued at more than 15 million pounds, Investec Specialist said. Of the total, 44 percent, or 9,704, were in London and had a value of 26.9 billion pounds, with 10 percent in Surrey and worth 4.47 billion pounds, according to the report.