According to property sales data from Savills, this is an increase from 874 local areas to 1,312 – meaning a sixth of wards now have average property values of more than half a million pounds.
The largest change in the number of wards with homes worth £500,000 or more occurred in the South West, where the figure increased from 46 in 2019 to 123 in 2021.
London had the largest proportion of wards with properties worth £500,000 or more at 63.9 per cent up from 51.8 per cent. In numbers, this accounts for 412 wards compared to 334 in 2019.
In the South East, 34.2 per cent or 477 wards have homes worth more than £500,000, up from 23.1 per cent in 2019.
In the East of England, this rose from 134 wards to 194, increasing the proportion of wards from 13 per cent to 18.9 per cent.
Savills said this was a peak in areas with average homes exceeding £500,000.
Despite this growth in property prices, what buyers can get for their money has shrunk.
Savills’ data showed that on average, the size of a home worth £500,000 or more had decreased by two per cent over five years.
The North East will give buyers the most for their money, with a home worth half a million pounds or more being 2,017 square feet on average compared to 869 in London.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said the demand to move resulted in a house price boom across the country.
He added: “With stock in long-favoured hotspots across the country unable to meet increased demand, surrounding wards benefited, too. As a result, we’ve seen a surge in new geographical areas breaking the half a million pound threshold over the past two years.
“The recent increase in prices also means the range of options for those with smaller budgets is getting increasingly limited, with even half a million pounds buying you an increasingly shrinking amount of space.”
Cook said: “This said, the four successive rate rises and the rising cost of living are likely to bring more caution over the coming months which will mean that the rate of price growth slows progressively, potentially to low single-digit figures in coming years, which will come as welcome relief to many who are looking to make their next move.”
