Property investment firm London Central Portfolio has issued its quarterly analysis of the prime London Central Land Registry data, recently available for 2007.

Houses, as opposed to flats and maisonettes, in the City of Westminster and the borough of Kensington & Chelsea, rose 50 per cent comparing the last quarter of 2007 to the same quarter in 2006, but the number of transactions was down by 24 per cent from the third quarter of 2007.

The average price for a detached house in Kensington & Chelsea was £13 million ($25 million) in the fourth quarter of 2007 – up over 300 per cent on the first quarter of 2007. The flats and maisonettes sector grew by 16 per cent over the same period.

Although transactions fell in Q4 2007 as people held back owing to the credit crunch, LCP believes there is pent-up demand due to a frothy summer where “Dutch auctions” and sealed bids left buyers out in the cold.

All property in the prime central London market averaged £846,000 during 2007 compared to £717,000 in 2006.