Prime property investors look beyond London, lender reports

A mortgage lender specialising in high net worth clients has identified those areas outside London seeing the most prime purchases.

Enness Global Mortgages analysed transactions at £3m and above across England over the last year and found that 886 homes were sold within the prime market for an average just shy of £4m.

London accounted for 78 per cent of these high-end transactions. However the South East (15 per cent), South West (three per cent), East of England (two per cent) also saw a number of homes sell for £3m or above.

Outside of London, Elmbridge was the main hotspot with 31 homes sold in the last year. The came Buckinghamshire (14), Windsor and Maidenhead (both 11).

Runnymede and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (all on 9) were followed by Waverley (8), Chichester (7), Cornwall and South Oxfordshire (both 6).

The rest of the top 15 included Sevenoaks, Oxford, St Albans, Hertsmere, Cheshire East and the New forest, all of which saw five homes sell at £3m or more in the last 12 months.

Teignbridge in Devon was home to the single highest sold price outside London at £6.2m, with Stratford-on-Avon also breaking the £6m mark (£6.15m).

Islay Robinson, chief executive of the mortgage firm, says: “We’ve seen lockdown spur an uplift in buyer demand for bigger homes with more outdoor space and this is no different at the very top end, with high-end homebuyers also keen to upgrade the pandemic property potential.”

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