'Half of £1m London homes have two bedrooms or fewer'

Almost half the £1 million homes on sale in London now have just two bedrooms or fewer after an explosion in the number of newly built small “luxury flats”, research reveals today.

The analysis by agent Savills shows 35 per cent of all homes on the market priced between £900,000 and £1.1 million have just two bedrooms — while a further 10 per cent have only one.

The figures show how hard it has become for even wealthy buyers to secure family homes with enough space to raise children in the capital. Outside London only one per cent of million-pound homes have fewer than three bedrooms.

Kensington & Chelsea has the worst “bed for your buck” rating with an average of 1.56 bedrooms for buyers spending £1 million, according to Savills’ analysis of data from online property portal On the Market.

The only other borough where a seven-figure budget will not secure you a second bedroom is Westminster with an average of 1.86 beds.

Seven other boroughs — Camden, Tower Hamlets, Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington, Southwark, Hounslow and Wandsworth — have “beds per million” averages below three.

Across London as a whole the average is 2.89 bedrooms, compared with a UK-wide figure of 4.77 bedrooms.

It also shows that cramped central London flat-dwellers with £1 million to spend on a spacious family home should head east.

The borough of Havering on the Essex borders is the only place left in London where £1 million will secure five bedrooms, according to the analysis. The next best place for finding space is Croydon with an average of 4.93 bedrooms for a £1 million property.

The research comes after official data from the Office for National Statistics showed an acceleration in the number of people in their thirties moving out of London in search of more space to start families.

Lucian Cook, Savills’ director of residential research, said: “The ability to get much more space for your million has become an increasingly strong driver of demand in the suburbs and commuterland.

"While the million-pound house remains an identifiable symbol of property wealth across most of the country, this is no longer necessarily the case through a lot of London. It might mean a one- or two-bed flat in central London or a relatively modest family home in many other boroughs.”

Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: “Sky-high house prices in the capital mean the prospect of owning a home is nothing but a pipe-dream for millions of London families.

"As these figures show, even if they could save up for a deposit, in most boroughs even a small flat is way out of reach.”