Homes worth £1m-plus to '˜triple by 2030' says forecast

The forecast would mean that by 2030, around one in every 20 (5.1%) homes in the UK is worth £1 million-plus, according to Santander Mortgages.

In Northern Ireland, however, the groeth is expected to be more modest witht he number of £1m-plus homes reaching 2,328 but 2030, slightly less than double the current number estimated at the moment at 1,333.

That would leave the top properties representing a 0.28% share of the total market as opposed to 0.17% now.

One in every four (25%) properties in London is expected to be worth £1 million-plus by 2030. In the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, more than 70% of homes are expected to have a value of at least £1 million by 2030.

The report, compiled by a professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) for Santander, predicts the gap between the housing haves who already own large homes, and the have nots struggling to get on the housing ladder will widen, as the “unthinkable” £1 million price tag is attached to more modest properties.

Would-be home buyers will increasingly need to make compromises - such as moving away from friends and family and facing longer work commutes - the report warns.

It said that an average UK home costing £280,000 today is expected to be worth £344,000 in five years’ time and will have nearly doubled in price to £557,444 by 2030.

A deterioration in housing affordability will mean the average UK property will be worth nearly 10 (9.7) times the average income by 2030, the report predicts. The current ratio is 7.9.

In London, the average home is expected to cost 16.5 times the average income by 2030, up from a multiple of 11.5 now.

Nearly half a million homes are currently valued at £1 million or more, representing 1.8% of the total housing stock.

By 2020, the number of million pound properties is expected to increase to nearly 689,000, or 2.4% of the housing stock, according to the report.

And by 2030, the number of homes worth at least £1 million is predicted to have tripled to 1.6 million.