Sales of homes worth more than £1 million have plunged by nearly a fifth year-on-year, Land Registry figures show.

Across England and Wales, 851 homes were sold for over £1 million in January, a 19% fall compared with January last year, when 1,049 properties in this bracket were snapped up.

The bulk of transactions involving homes worth more than £1 million were in London, which saw a sharp 23% decline in sales in this bracket compared with a year earlier.

The Land Registry's figures show that house prices in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average property is worth £1.29 million, have shown the slowest annual growth over the last year of all the London boroughs, recording a 5.2% upswing.

Westminster was the only other London borough to see year-on-year price growth below 10%, with a 9.9% increase taking the average value to £999,687.

By contrast, Newham, where the average home has a value of £291,364, saw the highest growth of the London boroughs, recording a 19.8% increase.