Revealed: The UK cities where £1m properties sell fastest
Homes worth £1m or more have sold most quickly in Cambridge this year, taking only 45 days on average to secure a buyer – twice as fast as the national average
According to property website Rightmove, the top five fastest selling million pound locations are all outside of London: Edinburgh and Harpenden are in joint second place taking 53 days each, followed by Bristol at 54 days
Meanwhile, the average time it takes to secure a buyer in the million pound plus market has increased by five days compared to last year, now taking an average of 99 days, the study showed.
Rightmove’s research also found that in four out of 11 regions the time to secure a buyer for a million pound home has sped up: Scotland, East Midlands, North East and the North West are all selling these homes quicker than a year ago
| The places where £1m properties sell fastest |
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1. Cambridge 2. Edinburgh 3. Harpenden 4. Bristol 5. St Albans 6. Winchester 7. Hackney 8. Golders Green 9. Woking 10. Brixton |
The million pound market has sped up most in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire over the past year, with homes taking only 66 days to secure a buyer, compared to 112 days in 2017.
Rightmove’s housing market analyst Miles Shipside said: “Hotspots like Cambridge have helped the east of England take over the mantle from London in recent years, with this region now selling million pound plus properties 12 days quicker than in the capital.
“The Scottish million pound plus market has also picked up as the increased activity in the overall housing market in Scotland is having a positive knock on effect on the higher end, especially in cities like Edinburgh.”
The average time it takes an agent to strike a deal for a property usually increases the higher up the ladder or price bracket you go, according to Rightmove.
For example, homes worth £300,000 or under take an average of just under two months to find a buyer, while Rightmove’s analysis shows that property millionaires can be waiting over three months, based on the properties that do actually sell.
Eight of the top 10 fastest hotspots are selling million pound homes more quickly than in 2017, according to Rightmove.
Homes in Brixton are selling 24 days faster and those in Edinburgh are selling 23 days faster than last year. The two exceptions in the list are Cambridge, which is one day slower than last year, and Bristol, which has increased from a very speedy 36 days to 54 days.
Explaining the speed of sale for high priced homes in Cambridge, Simon Burson, partner at law firm Bircham Dyson Bell said: “The growth in the £1 million plus homes in Cambridge reflects a number of recent changes in the residential market.
"In the last few years, there has been an unprecedented release of additional land for development around the immediate fringes of the City, a significant influx of new and home grown companies with Cambridge now hosting its 16th $1bn business, and at the same time there continues to be demand for properties within the boundaries of historic Cambridge where there will always be limited supply.
"This combination has led to an explosion in demand for houses at the top end of the market.”