St Albans recorded more £1m-plus property transactions than almost anywhere outside London over the last year, new research into house sales in England and Wales has revealed.

A study of Land Registry data by Keller Williams UK found that there were 137 £1m-plus sales in St Albans between December 2019 and November 2020, with a median price of £1,257,000.

This placed the local authority area - which includes Harpenden and surrounding villages - in 20th place.

City of Westminster topped the chart with 876 £1m-plus transactions and a median sold price of £2m, followed by Kensington and Chelsea with 753 sales at an average price of £2.1m.

A total of 12,251 homes sold for £1m during the 12-month period, with an average price tag of £1,333,286. 58 per cent of these sales were in London.

Elmbridge in Surrey was the highest-ranking area outside the capital with 327 sales, followed by Windsor and Maidenhead (145), Waverley (143) and St Albans.

Some of the priciest properties to change hands in Harpenden during this period were on Park Avenue North (£5m, £3.655m and £3.05m), The Hammonds (£3.83m) and Oakfield Road (£3,596,890).

St Albans’ most high-end house sales were on Hillside Road (£2.275m), Homewood Road (£2.075m and £1.5m), Avenue Road (£2m), Holywell Hill (£2m) and York Road (£2m).

Ben Taylor, CEO of Keller Williams UK, said: “The higher tiers of the housing market have arguably suffered most due to COVID uncertainty and activity hasn’t been boosted to the same extent as a result of the current stamp duty holiday.

“That said, it’s reassuring to see that a robust number of transactions have still taken place despite the turbulence of the last year and this is a foundation that will no doubt be built on in 2021.

“Of course, London leads the way in terms of the sheer volume of sales but there has been activity across all regions of England and Wales and, in fact, some regions have seen these transactions complete for a similar or even higher average sold price than the capital itself.”