Property millionaires rocket five-fold over decade to 132,000 people

Published 08th Jul 2010

The number of homeowners with properties in Britain worth more than £1million has soared to 132,000, research reveals today.

Over the last decade, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of 'property millionaires', according to the report by Santander.

In 2000, the average home cost £85,000 and there were 26,776 people owning houses in the exclusive bracket.

Today, properties now cost an average £168,000 while the number of owners with homes worth more than £1million has increased to 131,996.

At this rate, there are about 30 homeowners every day hitting the jackpot with the value of their home tipping over the £1million mark.

In many cases, the owners purchased the property for a fraction of the price it is worth today, meaning their home has turned into the best investment that they will ever make.

But young people and families who cannot afford to move up the housing ladder have paid a heavy price for the housing boom.

While the number of property millionaires has soared, the number of first-time buyers has collapsed.

In 2000, some 500,000 young people bought a house - this dropped to 200,000 last year.

And 80 per cent of people under the age of 30 have said they could only afford to buy their homes because their parents gave or lent,them the money for a deposit.

Today's report shows the vast majority of £1million-plus properties are in London.

Of the 132,000, around 80 per cent are in the capital, typically in the south-west or west of the city in areas such as Kensington & Chelsea, Mayfair, Knightsbridge.

In a separate report, upmarket estate agents Knight Frank says the majority of people who can afford to buy the capital's most exclusive homes are foreigners.

For homes sold for more than £5million, more than two-thirds are overseas buyers, helped by the recent collapse in sterling.

But the number of people owning properties worth more than £1million outside London has ballooned by more than 10,000 per cent in some parts of the country.

The area with the largest increase is Edinburgh, which had just 16 homes valued at more than £1million a decade ago. Today there are 1,665.

Other big winners are St Albans, Hertfordshire, up from 40 to 1,269, and Warrington, Cheshire, up from 51 to 1,066, and Southampton, up 49 to 681.

Phil Cliff, director of mortgages at Santander, said: 'For many of us, our home is our castle.

'In recent years, we've often view our home as our key investment too.'

The research shows that the number of 'property millionaires' was hit during the recession, dropping by more than 43,000 last year.

But it has recovered sharply, and is now close to the all-time peak of 146,585 in 2008.

The research is based on the number of homes valued at more than £1million, but ignores the size of the mortgage on the property.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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