THE number of home sales in England and Wales jumped by 37 per cent during January to March compared with the same period a year ago, the Land Registry has said.

Prices in England and Wales rose 5.05 per cent in the year to March 31, to an average of £192,745.

The biggest increases were seen in the north east of England, while Conwy in Wales suffered the largest drop.

Not surprisingly, London dominates the market for the most expensive houses which cost more than £1million each. But Kent also figures in the top 10.

Two houses in the county were sold for £2million or more in this period, the same as Hertfordshire and West Yorkshire. Only London, with 162, Surrey with 12, Oxfordshire, Poole and Buckinghamshire with four apiece and Essex and Hertfordshire with three each were above Kent in this table.

It is the fastest growing of all the price bands monitored with the boom fuelled by foreigners and the massive City bonuses paid out after Christmas. The Land Registry monitors 24 housing bands, starting at, surprisingly, under £10,000. These certainly are as rare as hens’ teeth in Kent.

At the lower end monitored sales have dropped sharply nationwide with an 80 per cent fall in the number of homes sold for less than £60,000 - perhaps because they are few and far between.

A record 60,000 families in Britain are now calculated to be property millionaires, living in homes worth at least £1million. The figures do not offer much hope to first-time buyers but the market is generally buoyant.

The Land Registry figures show that nearly 220,000 people bought a new home between January and March, a rise of nearly 38 per cent.