Sales of new homes increased in England and Wales in April 2018, official figures show

The sale of newly built homes and freehold properties increased in England and Wales in the month of April 2018, official figures from the Land Registry show.

Of the 78,408 sales received for registration some 11,758 were newly built, a 28.2% increase on April 2017, and 57,657 were freehold, a 5.2% increase over the same period.

Some 363 were of residential properties sold for £1 million and over of which 213 were in Greater London, two in Birmingham and two in Manchester.

The most expensive residential sale taking place in April 2018 was of a detached property in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London for £19.8 million while the cheapest home sale was a terraced property in Burnley, Lancashire, for £17,500.

The most expensive commercial sale taking place in April 2018 was in the City of Westminster for £95,370,000 and the cheapest was in Bolton for £425.

But month on month sales were down. Total sales of 78,408 were down from 90,284 in March compared with the previous month but March’s sales were higher than the 85,249 recorded in February.

A breakdown of the figures shows that detached sales in April reached 16,728, down from 20,144 in March while semi-detached sales fell from 22,040 to 19,362 and apartments were down from 18,253 to 15,457. Sales of terraced homes fell from 23.036 in March to 20,714 in April.