Rising house prices have created pockets of areas that are now being dubbed “million pound towns” due to the average cost of a home there. A Lloyds Bank report revealed that several of these areas now exist outside of London. Having reached the £1million mark for the very first time, it shows the extent of areas closing out possible buyers.

Surrey was listed as the second most expensive town to buy a home following London.

In the first half of the year, almost 5,600 properties sold above one million pounds. One in ten of those took place in Kensington and Chelsea and 9% in Westminster.

There were 111 million pound properties sold in Scotland in the first half of the year.

Sarah Deaves, a private banking director with Lloyds Bank, remarked, “The number of homes sold for over £1million has fallen sharply over the past year.

“However, the regional picture is much more mixed and we're seeing the emergence of towns where the average price is at least £1million. Whilst there are several London neighborhoods where prices are already at this elevated level, outside of the capital this is a first.”

While there may be more areas with million pound homes, the volume of million pound home sales fell in the first half of 2015 compared to the same period the previous year. It is thought that the property tax change that took place at the end of last year could be a factor in the decline, since it required higher payments on an escalated scale according to the sale price.

House price indexes have shown some signs of a cooling off period for sales, but this could end as home buyers seek to get a low interest rate mortgage before rates increase. They will also be keen to buy before house prices rise further. Therefore, the cooling off period should be brief if it sustains.

Homeowners, too, are taking advantage of the current cheap interest rates and securing a remortgage while the deals are attractive. Experts believe the standard base interest rate will increase by the first half of next year, but lenders may begin to pull their lowest interest rate deals before the Bank makes a change.