Britain's most expensive streets revealed

Britain's most expensive street has been revealed as Kensington Palace Gardens in central London, where the average property costs an incredible £38.27 million. This ultra-posh, gated street, just a stone's throw from Kensington Palace, is home to the likes of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittall, so it probably shouldn't come as a huge shock that their properties are worth so much. What does come as a surprise, is just how many other roads feature mega-expensive homes nowadays.

The report, by Zoopla, named the top ten most expensive streets as:

1. Kensington Palace Gardens, W8 £38.27m
2. The Boltons, SW10 £33.31m
3. Grosvenor Crescent SW1X £21.64m
4. Courtenay Avenue, N6 £19m
5. Manresa Road, SW3 £13.28m
6. Compton Avenue, N6 £13.21m
7. Frognal Way, NW3 £12.8m
8. Ilchester Place, W14 £12.77m
9. Cottesmore Gardens, W8 £10.81m
10. Chester Square, SW1W £10.64m

It also tracked down the most expensive neighbourhoods, which again were unsurprisingly all London-based. The top five were Knightsbridge, Kensington, Chelsea, Notting Hill, and Westminster.

Despite their expensive price tags, three of the top 10 costliest neighbourhoods in west London have dropped in value over the past 12 months. Kensington, W8, Notting Hill, W11 and the West End, W1 have fallen by 4.22%, 5.22% and 3.52% respectively. This compares to a 1.73% increase on the average property price in Britain over the same period.

Beyond London

Outside of London it calculated the towns with the largest number of roads where properties cost an average of more than £1m. The top ten were:

1. Guildford (184 roads)
2. Reading (162)
3. Leatherhead (152)
4. Sevenoaks (150)
5. Maidenhead (145)
6. Esher (127)
7. Woking (120)
8. Beaconsfield (113)
9. Farnham (111)
10. Harpenden (110)

Esher is particularly notable in this list, because it is so much smaller than many of the others on the list. It makes it into the top ten, therefore, because 44% of streets in the town have an average property price above £1 million.

Unsurprisingly the towns are concentrated in the South East, which is home to the most property millionaires after London. This is followed by the East of England, the South West, the North West and Scotland.

However, while the very top end is dominated by London and the South East, the report also showed an astonishing number of properties are now worth over £1 million across the country. Nationwide, the number of streets in Britain where the average property value is over £1 million currently stands at 12,418.

With property prices continuing to rise since the start of the year, 40,885 new property millionaires have been created since January, which takes the total to 660,924.

It's sobering reading for anyone with any dreams of eventually getting onto the property ladder - especially in the South East. Philip Hammond may be convinced that enough has been done to help first time buyers, so he can feel free to drop the Help to Buy scheme, but figures like this reveal just how far out of reach an average property has got for anyone but a millionaire.