Adrian Dadds, managing director at funding specialists, St Georges Finance, said: “This reflects the building boom of the last few years, which is likely to continue for a while yet, due to the number of schemes already in place.”
However, the number of residential and commercial land and property sales lodged for registration in England and Wales dropped to 75,937 in May, from 112,546 the previous month.
Commenting on the drop in the number of sales registered in May, Adrian Dadds said: “This would have been due to the rise in Stamp Duty. Anyone who could complete before the rise would have done so, saving themselves thousands of pounds.”
The Land Registry data also shows that the most expensive new build sale in May 2016 was a hefty £48.2m, compared with last month’s most expensive, which was just over £12.5m.
Sales of residential properties worth over £1m rose in May, up from 246 in April, to 296. Sales of London properties over £1m also increased, from 152 to 182. May’s most expensive residential sale was £5.5m, for a flat in Westminster.
