It was purchased by Lance Uggla, the Canadian chief executive of a financial
services company.

Other top sales included a detached house in exclusive private estate St
George’s Hill in Weybridge, Surrey.

Timur Goriaev, the Russian head of cosmetics firm Kalina, paid £8m for the
six-bedroom house which features an indoor pool, sauna and a bar.

Only three days earlier, another property on the same estate sold to a British
LLP, for £3.5m.

Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills, noted that despite
the fall in monthly figures, high-end property sales have proven relatively
buoyant throughout the downturn.

“Generally speaking, we are seeing transaction levels running at 50 to 55
per cent lower than the pre-credit crunch norm. But these sales are far more
robust high up the value scale.

“When you look at the million-pound-plus transactions, what we’re finding
is that the market is highly driven by London and the South East. In 2011,
£1m-plus sales in London were at 105% the levels in 2007.

“Oxfordshire, Gloucester, Kent and East Sussex all had more £1m-plus
sales in 2011 than in 2007. But the further you get from London, the less
this pattern bears out.” Sales of properties over £1m fell by 59%
between 2007 and 2011 in the North West.

Last month, house prices averaged £368,200 in London (slightly down on sales
registered the previous month), ahead of £266,500 in the South East and
£232,400 in East Anglia.

Houses in the North East had the lowest average prices, at only £131,165 (also
slightly down).

Last month also saw a jump in sales of houses for less than £250,000, to
40,907, as first time buyers rushed to tie down their purchase before the
end of the Stamp Duty holiday.