Outside London, Old Avenue in Weybridge, Surrey, had the highest average asking price for properties in 2024 so far, at £2.6m, Rightmove found.
Looking at homes to rent, the highest typical asking rents were found in Albion Street in Bayswater, central London, at £20,857 per month. This was followed by Pavilion Road in Knightsbridge, central London, where renters will need an average of £15,251 per month for a new let.
Outside London, Rightmove found the highest average asking rent was in London Road in Ascot, Berkshire, at £6,831 per month. Manor Road in Chigwell, Essex, had average asking rents of £4,311.
Meanwhile, renters looking for properties in Manchester’s vibrant city centre face average monthly rents of £3,766 in Deansgate, the research indicates.
Tim Bannister, a property expert at Rightmove, said: “London’s status as the hub of luxury property in the UK remains unchallenged, with Buckingham Gate in Westminster commanding the highest average asking price.
“Although the possibility of buying one of these homes is limited to a very lucky few, there’s clearly a fascination with these prestigious homes as we find they’re often among our most viewed properties on Rightmove.”
The rise in banks using property surveyors who are working from home risks leaving homeowners trapped in homes they cannot sell, the industry has warned.
Remote or hybrid property surveyor jobs have jumped from 4pc pre-pandemic to 33pc today, according to exclusive data shared with The Telegraph by job search portal Indeed.
Valuations done from a desktop rely on pictures, making it hard for surveyors to see how properties are constructed. As a result, some bank surveyors are signing off on properties without realising they are unmortgageable.
Remote valuations help banks keep up with the volume of mortgage applications they receive – one surveyor told The Telegraph six valuations a day is standard practice.
But remote valuations can also “be detrimental” for a buyer when they come to sell the property.
Steve Savage, of Connells Survey and Valuation, said: “I had a case recently, a two-storey terrace house from 1900 with single skin brickwork spanning four inches. I carried out a Rics [Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors] Level 2 homebuyer survey for the customer and found the property was unmortgageable.
“This was after a desktop valuation had been undertaken for the lender, giving the property the green light for a mortgage. Had the lender known the correct type of property construction, they would not have accepted the mortgage application.”
Mr Savage said the buyer may also have thought twice about buying the property, or tried to negotiate a better sale price earlier.
Mr Savage added: “Desktop and mortgage valuations are for the lenders’ benefit and will be limited in scope.
“The use of desktop valuations has increased since Covid… [They] can be detrimental to the customer when they come to sell the property.”
House prices are set to bounce back in spring as lower mortgage rates lure buyers back into the market.
The number of property sales increased by 1pc to 82,940 between January and February, according to a report published by HMRC on Thursday.
The increase in transactions were due to improved buyer confidence as inflation and interest rates begin to steady, mortgage lenders said.
The Bank of England has held the base rate at 5.25pc since August, but this week accounting firm KPMG predicted the Bank would rates four times this year. Inflation, meanwhile, fell to a two-year low of 3.4pc in February.
Santander, HSBC and Barclays reduced mortgage rates this week, while others unveiled new deals to lure in homebuyers who “sat out” of the market in 2023.
Barclays cut fixed rates by up to 0.25 percentage points, with its two-year product now at 4.64% with a £999 fee.
HSBC’s equivalent deal is at 4.33% while Santander’s cuts include a five-year remortgage offer fixed at 4.34%.
Experts predict fixed mortgage rates could dip below 4pc within weeks as they react to an improving economic picture, easing affordability pressures on borrowers and fuelling optimism among homeowners.
The average two-year fixed-rate deal is now 5.8pc and the average five-year deal is 5.38pc, according to analyst Moneyfacts.