Whilst a very strong performance in Prime London Central hiked-up the look of the national figures, the average price with PLC excluded still showed growth of 4%, reaching an average price of £229,471.
But once again, the grand slam was won by PLC. Whilst overall transactions saw a slight rise of 3%, property prices grew 10% over the month. The average has now breached the £1.5m barrier for the first time to stand at a new high of £1,512,248.
These figures should be treated with caution, however. The performance has been buoyed by an increased number of high value sales above £5m. In this price segment, transactions rose from 15 to 27, representing an 80% increase over May 2012. In fact, throughout the UK, all but one sale above £5m took place in PLC. The most expensive sale was a terraced house located in Upper Brook Street, Westminster. This went for £27m. The most money paid outside the capital was £7,883,364 for a terrace house in Sandwell, West Bromwich.
Naomi Heaton, CEO of London Central Portfolio, explains:
"Whilst it is clear that there is no glass ceiling when it comes to prices in Prime London Central, it is worth noting that only 27 sales took place above £5m. With so few transactions every month in PLC (just 525 in May), these top-end deals do tend to mask real average prices. When these sales are excluded, the average price of property in PLC falls to £1,061,194. In fact, 1/3 of all sales took place in £500,000 - £1m bracket.”
