The number of homes across Britain valued at £1m or more has increased by 49% over the past year, according to figures published on Tuesday.

Living in a road of £1m-plus homes is no longer a badge of exclusivity. The property website Zoopla, which compiled the data, found that there are 3,744 streets in London where the price of homes is on average higher than £1m, and 10,613 across the country. It estimated that 484,081 households can now claim to be property millionaires.

The true price of entry into the property big league is now at least £10m, with estate agents preferring billionaires rather than buyers commanding only six zeroes. Zoopla found 12 streets, all in the capital, where house prices averaged more than £10m.

Kensington Palace Gardens finished top of the list. Britain’s most expensive street is made up of vast detached palaces that sell on average for £42.7m – up 12% over the last year and 161 times the average UK home price – and whose super-elite residents include Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. A somewhat worn-out five-bed apartment on a 1960s block in the road, which even the agents admit is “in need of modernisation”, is on the market for £23.5m. It does, however, include a “chauffeur’s room”.

The next most expensive street in Britain is the Boltons, also in Kensington, where average prices are £26.6m. This summer, one owner on the street, Paul Burdell, put his home on the market inviting buyers to pay £20.5m and then knock it down. The multimillionaire debt collector, whose firm specialises in tracking down hard-up families who owe money to banks and credit card companies, won a lengthy battle against neighbours, including footballer Frank Lampard, for permission to demolish his home and rebuild it with three storeys underground, including a swimming pool, gym and cinema, but now wants to sell.

Britain’s third most expensive street, Grosvenor Crescent, is a busy road running off Hyde Park Corner, where properties change hands for an average of £22.3m. But even that doesn’t get you your own front door or garden. Agents recently marketed a three-bed flat on the crescent for £18m, while a two-bed flat was listed for rental last year at £7,150 a month. For that, tenants have to make do with a lounge-cum-diner and a second bedroom that is just 8ft x 11ft.

Outside London, the most expensive street in Britain is Sunninghill Road in Surrey, where the average home is currently worth £5.6m. The two most expensive towns outside London are both in Surrey, with average house prices in Virginia Water at £1.2m and in Cobham at a shade over £1m.

Britain’s top 10 most expensive streets

Rank | Street | Average property value | Annual increase (%)

1Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8, £42,730,706, 12.1%

2The Boltons, London SW10, £26,570,341, 13.6%

3Grosvenor Crescent, London SW1X, £22,293,470, 12.4%

4Courtenay Avenue, London N6, £16,877,746, 13.7%

5Ilchester Place, London W14, £11,853,515, 16.0%

6Frognal Way, London NW3, £10,974,043, 8.4%

7Carlyle Square, London SW3, £10,846,481, 14.1%

8Montrose Place, London SW1X, £10,683,611, 12.4%

9Cottesmore Gardens, London W8, £10,631,829, 12.1%

10 Manresa Road, London SW3, £10,362,420, 14.1%

Source: Zoopla (August 2014)

This article was written by Patrick Collinson, for The Guardian on Tuesday 26th August 2014 06.00 Europe/London

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