A £1m home is sold every 27 minutes

ESTATE agents sell a £1million house in Britain every 27 minutes in a stark reminder of the country’s sky-high property prices.

A total of 53 seven-figure properties change hands every single day, the fastest rate the country has ever seen, according to estate agent Savills. The amount sold nearly doubled from 10,100 in 2006 to 19,300 last year, researchers found.

The majority of the top-priced property sales were in London, thanks to years of growth and a shortage of houses, with 11,321 in the nation’s capital.

Essex is the fastest- growing spot outside the capital, with a 58 per cent rise in sales for £1million or more in the past three years.

The towns of Chigwell and Brentwood and the city of Chelmsford have all seen solid growth, and the price of rural mansions has also risen.

At the cheapest end of the market, just 31 homes were bought for seven figures in Wales and 36 in the North-East.

Lucian Cook of Savills said: ‘ Despite pressure on house prices in some of the most valuable parts of the capital, the number of sales over £1million across the country as a whole has proved surprisingly robust, given stamp duty costs and the level of political uncertainty.’