Britain’s two-tier housing market has been laid bare by figures showing that 27,000 new property millionaires were created in 2011 despite prices overall falling by 3pc.
New figures from Zoopla.co.uk, an online valuation service, say 26,744 more home owners had properties worth £1m more at the end of 2011 than at the same time last year, although the average British property value fell by 3pc to £221,128 over the same period.
Prime property prices in London rose 0.7% in October and 0.6% in November, continuing the strong performance seen in this sector of the market throughout 2011, and bringing annual growth to 12.5%. Prices are now nearly 40% higher than their dip in 2009 and over 5% above their previous peak in March 2008. Even within areas that have seen strong growth it is the highest quality properties that are driving the market as buyers focus on acquiring the very best properties available. For the 6 years to the end of November, the best performing 10% of prime central properties have seen growth of over 150% compared to the still impressive yet significantly lower 42% growth for the bottom 10%.
