Here are the top 10 most expensive towns in Britain. Forget the crunch, and dream on...
10. SEVENOAKS, Kent
Average price: £468,799
Outperforms surrounding area by: 80%
Sales over £500,000: 34%
Five-year price increase: 53%
A treasure just outside the M25, Sevenoaks has London to the north, with Charing Cross half an hour by train, and the rural splendour of the Kentish Weald to the south. It has a hoard of lovely villages in its catchment, the grandeur of Knole (where Vita Sackville-West grew up) at its edge, high-flying state and private schools, good shops, cinemas and restaurants. Estate agents can't get enough millionaire mansions to sell. On the Wildernesse Estate are huge Edwardian edifices with new mansions built between. Knight Frank (01732 744477) is selling a five-bedroom gem here with a pool, tennis court and two acres, at £2.75m.
9. ALDERLEY EDGE, Cheshire
Average price: £481,104
Outperforms surrounding area by: 207%
Sales over £500,000: 31%
Five-year price increase: 63%
Bang in the middle of the Cheshire golden triangle, this is by far the pushiest town in the country. It punches way above the weight of the area, with prices on average 207% higher, and locals drink more champagne than anywhere else in the UK. The Wilmslow Express recently reported that Whitebarn Road was the "swankiest" in the North West, and that two post codes contain almost a third of the properties in the top 100 most expensive streets in the region. You could bump into Manchester United's Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, Coronation Street actors, or even Charlotte Church and Gavin Henson out househunting. A new 21st-century mansion with five bedrooms (two of them guest suites) and a leisure complex with a heated swimming pool, sauna, steam room, media room and plant room is for sale through Jackson-Stops & Staff (01625 540440) at £2.99m.
8. HARPENDEN, Hertfordshire
Average price: £491,868
Outperforms surrounding area by: 122%
Sales over £500,000: 37%
Five-year price increase: 56%
Money cascades through streets such as Park Avenue South, where prices average over £2m, and West Common Way, both of which rank among the 200 most expensive roads in the country. Halfway between St Albans and Luton, Harpenden has excellent schools and a tree-lined High Street, and is strung together with parks and commons. Those who live here still refer to it as "the village". There are plenty of golf courses (Hanbury Manor, Brocket Hall) and a Bupa hospital. It grew rich on the arrival of the railway which dashes into Kings Cross Thameslink in 26 minutes, making it more convenient for commuters than many London suburbs. In Station Road, Savills (01582 465000) has a four-bedroom townhouse at £775,000.
7. BROCKENHURST, Hampshire
Average price: £496,263
Outperforms surrounding area by: 90 %
Sales over £500,000: 35%
Five-year price increase: 42 %
More of a village, yet with the communications of a modern town and the sea tantalisingly close, Brockenhurst is vibrant and pretty and has a successful sixth-form college. Fast trains from Weymouth stop here, pause for breath at Southampton and Winchester, then pelt for Waterloo without stopping. Beaulieu is the local millionaires' village, dominated by Lord Montague's home, the National Motor Museum and huge houses along the Beaulieu River which sell for millions. The Beaulieu estate still owns the exclusive Buckler's Hard yacht harbour, perfectly positioned almost opposite Cowes. Upper Ford on South Weirs forest track has six bedrooms, a swimming pool and paddocks and is priced at £2.75m through Paul Jackson (01590 674411).
6. SALCOMBE, Devon
Average price: £503,796
Outperforms surrounding area by: 126 %
Sales over £500,000: 36%
Five-year price increase: 79%
Salcombe occupies one of the most beautiful estuaries in England - wide, frilled with little bays, shallow enough for waders in the winter and dinghy-sailing children in the summer. This is the leading second home hotspot. The proportion of second homes in the town is estimated variously between 45% and 75%. In August, according to Tim Windibanks of Salcombe Holiday Homes (01548 843485), the population swells from 1,300 to 25,000. The town delivers the dream family holiday again and again, and 65% or renters return each year. A charming three-bedroom whitewashed stone cottage in the heart of town is for sale through Marchand Petit (01548 844473) at £550,000.
5. LYNDHURST, Hampshire
Average price: £515,803
Outperforms surrounding area by: 98%
Sales over £500,000: 32%
Five-year price increase: 115 %
The first of a brace of New Forest towns in the top ten, Lyndhurst is the capital. The area has become hugely popular with media types – clients, perhaps, of the local Ferrari and Maserati dealership - who are drawn to ancient landscape of bog and wood first established by William the Conqueror, where "commoners" can pasture their ponies and pannage their pigs. It has a pre-war gentility about it, with an excellent butcher who sells local meat, tea-rooms, a local produce market one Sunday a month, and cricket on Swan Green in the summer against a backdrop of thatched and whitewashed cottages. A three-bedroom Grade II listed cottage is for sale through Woolley & Wallis (01590 689878) at £379,995. City couples forced here by pony-mad daughters can compensate themselves with the promise of a boat on Southampton Water, and the knowledge that they can zip back to London's Waterloo in 75 minutes by train.
4. ASCOT, Berkshire
Average price: £525,335
Outperforms surrounding area by: 102%
Sales over £500,000: 41%
Five-year price increase: 30%
This is a rich man's playground rather than a small town with attitude. It is close to Windsor and Heathrow Airport, with golf at Hawthorn Hill, the Royal Ascot Golf Club and Wentworth, racing at Ascot and Windsor, polo at Smiths Lawn and the Royal Berkshire Polo Club, boating and sailing on the Thames, and with lots of prestigious mansions and private schools to match. The racecourse, laid out by Queen Anne in 1711, is the main reason to be here and the nightclubs of London aren't far. Fair Winds at Sunninghill close by is an impressive period mansion for sale through Savills (01344 295357) at £3.85m. It has nine bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, outbuildings, gardens, lake, and orchard.
3. AMERSHAM, Buckinghamshire
Average price: £545,097
Outperforms surrounding area by: 109%
Sales over £500,000: 46%
Five-year price increase: 61%
The first in a clutch of wealthy Chiltern towns, Amersham has a string of advantages. It lies in the halo just outside the M25, is surrounded by pretty countryside, is a lovely historic old town with a jumble of period styles and hanging baskets, and has impressive local grammar schools, one each for boys and girls. But it is also the last stop on the Metropolitan underground line, the original Metro-land, and is 37 minutes by overground to Marylebone. Richard Hammond recently moved in, close to where Angelina Jolie is believed to have a house, but moved out within two days as he found it too "posh". Three-bedroom brick-and-timber Juniper Cottage in the Old Town Conservation Area will cost £895,000 through Knight Frank (01494 675368).
2. GERRARDS CROSS/CHALFONT ST PETER, Buckinghamshire
Average price: £663,959
Outperforms surrounding area by: 155%
Sales over £500,000: 55%
Five-year price increase: 50%
Another pearl in Green Belt land, given extra sheen by being so close to the M25 and the M40, less than two miles from Beaconsfield but three train-stops closer to Marylebone. It is the sense of countryside so close to the roar of the capital that does it, with the old fashioned Common at the heart providing 32 acres of woodland, ponds and grassy knolls for children to play on. Around it are chocolate box cottages and elegant town houses. The choice of schools ranges from Eton in the private sector to the brilliant Bucks grammars. Golf and tennis are socially important, and faces you might know include Fern Britton, Paul Daniels and Cilla Black. Houses in Camp Road, Stoneyfield and Top Park sell at over £1.5m. The Priory in Denham village, with four bedrooms, a games complex, two flats, frontage on the River Misbourne, outdoor heated pool, tennis court, koi pond and summer house is priced at £3m through Knight Frank (01494 675368).
1. BEACONSFIELD, Buckinghamshire
Average price: £684,474
Outperforms surrounding area by: 163%
Sales over £500,000: 54%
Five-year price increase: 60%
It weighs in at the top of the table as prime commuter territory, nestling in the Chilterns like an expensive jewel, hanging on the hard shoulder of the M40 and half an hour by train from Marylebone. It attracts high flyers - city strivers who commute, and creatives who come to the National Film and Television School. Mouseprice.com reports that 38% of the population hold university degrees. High performing Bucks grammar schools produce results. Houses in top addresses Westfield Road and Cambridge Road routinely sell at over £2m. At the end of last year the average house price was calculated to be 14 times the average income. Even the sweetest little brick cottage with two bedrooms and an office in Aylesbury End has been priced at £535,000 by Savills (01494 731950).
