Country homes priced in the region of £2m have risen by 5.5 per cent adding around £100,000 to the purchase price.
This is the strongest performance for the prime country house market since 2010 with the South West, the Cotswolds and Scotland standing out as the most active markets.
Meanwhile fierce competition from second homeowners and families looking for a change in lifestyle has pushed up the prices of properties in prime coastal towns such as Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Norfolk by an average of 5.6 per cent over the year.
Smaller homes and flats in central London that come with a £2m price tag have fallen in value by around £8,000. In the rest of the prime London market, where £2m would typically secure an additional 1,000 sq ft of accommodation and more garden space, gains have averaged £36,000.
Figures from property data firm TwentyCI showed that the number of sales of £1m plus properties that were agreed in the 11 months to the end of November was 29 per cent higher than in the same period last year, despite a significant fall in activity during the first national lockdown.
Beyond London they have risen by 43 per cent.
Savills head of residential research Lucian Cook said: “The unique circumstances of 2020, have led to a surge in market activity at the top end of the housing market. This has supported prices and delivered some unexpected gains, but it hasn’t resulted in runaway price growth.
“The very top end of the country house market, in particular, has had an extraordinary year – perhaps its best since the 1980s, as buyers sought a lifestyle shift and recognised the relative value on offer.”
London prices dip
Overall, prime regional house prices rose by 3.6 per cent in the year, while prime London values rose by an average of just 1.1 per cent.
Values in the UK capital’s most expensive central locations, which remain almost 21 per cent below peak, slipped by 0.4 per cent across the year, but stabilised in the final quarter.
In London, there was price growth of more than four per cent for homes with medium or large gardens, while those with no outside space fell by 0.7 per cent in the past year.
A similar trend was seen when comparing houses with flats, and homes with five or more bedrooms to those with just one or two.
These trends favoured traditional family house markets such as Chiswick, Fulham, Putney and Richmond.
In prime central London, the strongest markets were Notting Hill, Holland Park and Bayswater, which combine good local amenities, access to green space, walkability and good family housing stock.
Cook added: “Given the practical implications of Covid-19, the prime central London market has relied on demand from domestic buyers and resident non-doms in 2020. In light of that, it has held up well but it simply hasn’t been able to match the performance of the regional markets or indeed the leafier parts of outer prime London.”
