This decline followed a 36% rise between 2003 and 2004. 1,508 million pound properties were sold in Britain during the first six months of 2005 compared to 2,033 properties in the first six months of 2004.
Scotland bucked the national trend with 40 million pound property sales north of the border in the first half of 2005 compared with 18 in the first six months of 2004. There were also small increases in North East (+1), West Midlands (+2) and East Midlands (+1).
The biggest falls were in Greater London (-366) and the South East (-153), which combined accounted for 99% of the overall decline in sales nationally (519 out of 525). There were also modest declines in the South West (-5), North West (-4), East (-14), Wales (-1) and Yorkshire & the Humber (-8).
There were sales of at least one £1m property in 176 local authority districts in the first half of 2005. Eight local authority districts saw their first million pound property sales in the first half of 2005: Tameside, Hastings, Castlepoint, Alnwick, Carlisle, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Shrewsbury & Atcham and Dumfries.
Outside London and the South East, the local authority areas of Poole in the South West and Midlothian in Scotland had the highest number of sales over £1 million in the first half of 2005 (both with 20).
Million pound properties accounted for only 0.4% of all sales nationally in the first half of 2005. Even in London, £1 million sales represented only 2% of total property sales.
On the basis that sales are representative of the entire housing stock, there are now approximately 53,400 properties in Britain valued at least £1 million. This compares with only 3,400 in 1995. In London, it is estimated that 33,000 properties are now valued above £1 million compared with just 2,600 in 1995.
OTHER KEY FINDINGS
London and the South East accounted for more than four-fifths (81%) of all sales over £1 million during the first six months of 2005 ……
Sales in London accounted for almost two-thirds (61%) of all million pound property sales in Britain in the first half of 2005.
One in three of all million pound plus property sales in Britain in the first six months of 2005 were in two London boroughs: Kensington & Chelsea (284 sales) and the City of Westminster (189 sales). These two areas have consistently topped the £1m plus sales table by a wide margin.
Sales of £2 million and above represented 16% of all sales over £1 million
In the first half of 2005 there were 235 property sales above £2 million. This was 24% less than in the same period a year earlier (309).
Regionally, 81% of all sales over £2 million in the first six months of 2005 were in London (191 sales). All but 22 sales were in London and the South East.
The 22 sales of £2 million and above outside London and the South East were in Poole, Trafford, Hertsmere, North Hertfordshire, Sheffield, Swindon, West Devon, Bath & North East Somerset, Salisbury, North Wiltshire, Welwyn Hatfield, Colchester and South Cambridgeshire.
As with all sales over £1 million, most sales over £2 million were in Kensington & Chelsea (83 sales) and Westminster (37 sales). Camden (22 sales) and Merton (12 sales) were the only other local authorities to record more than 10 sales over £2 million during the first six months of 2005.
Martin Ellis, Chief Economist at the Halifax, commented:
"There has been a further significant increase in sales above the £1 million mark in Scotland, reflecting the ongoing strength of the market north of the border. Nationally the uppermost sector of the residential property market has held up relatively well with the 26% fall in sales of million pound properties comparing with a 36% decline in total house sales between the first halves of 2004 and 2005. "
