Average house prices in the West Midlands have hit a record £200,000 – as the number of homes selling for more than a million soared.
The price of the average home in the region rose by £2,000 in December, to hit the new peak, with experts predicting low mortgage rates and stamp duty reform will inject further activity into the housing market in 2015.
Meanwhile, the number of homes selling for seven figures in Birmingham doubled last year, with a total of 34 changing hands.
House prices in the region actually rose by less than the 9.8 per cent UK average last year, with the average home appreciating by £10,000 across 2014, data for the Office for National Statistics showed.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "Furthermore, it currently looks very possible that the Bank of England will hold off from raising interest rates until 2016.
"It is also possible that limited supply of houses will provide support to house prices in some regions over the coming months."
But tougher mortgage checks, people stretching their mortgage borrowing in relation to their income and prospective buyers being put off by some sharp price increases are also likely to act as a constraint on activity, he said.
However, Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, described the house price rises as yet another blow for millions of people "with barely a hope of getting on the housing ladder".
The average UK home sold for £274,000 in December, with record prices also recorded in the East, the South East and the South West.
The strong uplifts seen across the country mean that a typical first-time buyer paid 9.5 per cent more for a property in December than they would have paid a year earlier. The average price paid for a house by a first-time buyer in December was £208,000.
Meanwhile, separate data from Zoopla shows a rise in £1 million-plus homes selling in Birmingham.
A six-bedroom Edgbaston mansion with marble floors, ornate decorations and a sauna was the most expensive property sold in the city last year for £1.6 million.
The home, in Farquhar Road, also features a driveway to park numerous cars, a meticulously landscaped garden and a games room.
It was one of 34 properties in Birmingham to sell for more than £1 million in 2014 – up from 23 the year before. But none of the 2,929 homes sold for £2 million or more in England and Wales were in the Birmingham area. In fact, the West Midlands accounts for only 0.25 per cent of sales of £1 million-plus homes in England and Wales.
In contrast, two-thirds of the national total were sold in London. The most expensive sale registered was for a Westminster apartment which sold for £50 million.
