February 2025 UK Premium Property Market Update

Before I get into that though, I want to share some really interesting data from Savills that was released last month highlighting that the number of property millionaires in Great Britain has increased by 34% over the past five years, with 3,127 more joining the ranks of property millionaires, of which 5,000 were in London. 

In total there are now 702,580 homes valued at £1,000,000 or more across Great Britain.

Unsurprisingly, London saw the biggest increase in £1 million homes and now has 349,068 £1 million plus properties, making up one in every 11 homes.

Outside of London, one in every 73 homeowners are currently millionaires. 

This means one in every 42 (2.45%) homes in Great Britain are valued at more than £1,000,000. 

As demonstrated in The Voice of the Agent 2025, there is a distinct advantage to agents operating in this sector as whilst the prime market at £1 Million plus only makes up 5% of all instructions, it brings in 32% of the fees. 

Agents concentrating on higher value properties can drive significantly greater profitability with fewer transactions.

Now we know the number of property millionaires has increased, what has this done to the state of market activity in the prime sector?

The number of properties available in the prime market continues to increase in line with the rest of the market as recently reported by Rightmove with stock levels at a 10-year high.

In my opinion this is due to a number of factors such as more listings hitting the market, properties taking longer to sell, fewer sellers withdrawing from the market and more sales falling through.

If you combine all of the above together it would explain why we are seeing much higher levels of stock on the market.

However, there is no need to panic that we will have too much supply causing house prices to fall as stock levels are stil approximatelyl 43% below where they were when the market was on its knees back in 2009 during the recession. 

The level of properties currently for sale is a good sign for the market as it gives the public more choice and should support more potential movers to take action rather than sitting on the sidelines thinking there is nothing for them to buy. 

The number of new properties entering the market shows no signs of slowing down as the stamp duty thresholds revert back to the pre-Covid levels and this is strong evidence of the confidence sellers are seeing in the market right now.

The same can be said for those sellers who have decided to try the market again now that conditions have significantly improved compared to the past couple of years when they attempted selling previously. 

The confidence observed by sellers listing their homes has definitely been matched by purchasers with sales agreed also up and is further evidence that the change in stamp duty is not holding buyers back from committing to their next move. 

This is backed up by the fact that Rightmove have found that moving activity remains robust with the number of new sellers coming to market now 13% ahead, buyer demand 8% up, and, sales agreed numbers 15% higher compared to the same period last year.

January was also a record month for applications for a Mortgage in Principle on Rightmove and were 49% higher than January 2024.

Zoopla found all measures of sales market activity continuing to move in the right direction with growth in buyer demand, sales agreed, new supply, and the number of properties for sale.

The number of properties needing a price reduction continues to be considerably higher when compared to the same time period across recent years, although it is a positive sign to see fewer price reductions happening in February compared to January, which perhaps shows initial asking prices are becoming more realistic.

However, we are definitely still seeing a mismatch between buyer and seller expectations, which means agents have got a difficult job on their hands to manage this difference in opinion on value if they are going to make sure listings do turn into sales. 

Properties withdrawing from the market are down on January and pretty much in line with where they were last year, which suggests sellers are understanding the current market conditions and are committed to moving as opposed to just removing themselves from the market if they don’t just get what they want.

However, they are still up on the six-year average, but February 2020-2022 would have seen considerably fewer properties withdrawing from the market due to very strong market conditions and 2023-2024 was still very much in a phase of recovery following the impact on interest rates following the mini budget in the autumn of 2022. 

The number of fall-throughs continues to be an issue costing estate agents and homemovers astronomical amounts of money in failed transactions each year.

I genuinely believe these figures can be reduced significantly by agents making a few tweaks in their processes when it comes to listing and selling properties.

There is lots of data out there that shows the longer a property takes to sell and needing a price reduction makes it a lot more likely to have a sale collapse.

Therefore, pricing correctly from the outset and finding a buyer sooner rather than later dramatically improves the chances of the sale reaching the finish line.

Making sure a seller has a solicitor instructed upon listing the property rather than when agreeing a sale will also increase the chances of a successful completion.

All of the three things I have mentioned above can easily be made part of the process an estate agent has when initially listing a property and I know many agents that have proven this to be the case. 

In conclusion, we have had a prolonged period of instability and suffering that seems to have no end with Covid, the cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine, and inflation to contend with over the past five years, but whilst global and economic news will continue to affect market sentiment and outlook, the UK premium property market has remained very resilienet and is showing really strong signs for the future backed up by the record number of property millionaires reported by Savills. 

There are more properties for sale, an increase in new listings and sales agreed, modest house price growth, slightly cheaper mortgages, more completions and a higher number of mortgage approvals all highlighting that the property market is in a very positive place right now. 

In the next edition to be released in April, I will be reviewing what happens to the property market during March as we gear up for the Stamp Duty changes and the Spring budget at the end of this month.

Thank you for reading the latest edition of this blog and as I said last month, keep an eye out for a huge episode of Opening The Gates To More Listings dropping this month with one of the highest profile names in the Prime and Super Prime end of the market. 

There is also a super special episode dropping on 20th March with a Sunday Times best seller, who has over 14 million followers across his social media platforms, you definitely don’t want to miss it. 

There have already been some big episodes released in March that have had some great feedback, so be sure to give them a listen and hit the subscribe button to be notified when future episodes go live. 

P.S. You can listen on Apple or Spotify to all of my podcast episodes. 

P.P.S. Let me know if there is anyone specific you would like to hear from on my podcast and I will do my best to get them on!

It was great to catch up recently with fellow contributors to these monthly newsletters, Simon Leadbetter and Elaine Penhaul in London where we had all made guest appearances on a podcast in London which will all be coming out soon, so stay tuned!