BOOMING house prices have created nearly 2,000 property millionaires in the north west, new figures have revealed.

The number of homes worth more than é1m has nearly doubled in the space of a year, according to official statistics.

Experts say the thriving Manchester economy is drawing in more and more high-earners, and this has sent prices soaring in the luxury home market.

Figures compiled by the Land Registry show how the number of é1m-plus property sales has grown rapidly in the north west over the past decade.

It is estimated there are now 1,916 homes in the region which are worth é1m or more.

Between 2004 and 2005, the number of million-pound sales rose by 182 per cent, the highest annual rise in the country - matched only by Yorkshire and Humberside.

Figures released today show that just under one in every 100 property sales in the north west is priced at é1m or more, compared to just one third of that number last year.

Much of the rise has been put down to executives coming to Manchester, as part of some é2bn of private cash that has been invested in the local economy in the last five years.

Major multi-nationals, like the Bank Of New York, have already set up home in the city - and the BBC's plans to move 5,000 jobs to Greater Manchester are tipped to accelerate the trend.

Dr John Risk, principal economic adviser for Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, told the M.E.N: "The past 10 years has seen our region continue to go from strength to strength, to become the largest regional economy outside of London and the south east. The north west is increasingly becoming home to some real big hitters who have decided to settle here, and so the rise in thenumber of million-plus properties only looks set to continue.é

Impressive

Helen Shaw, of the group communications manager at Portman Building Society, said: éThe north west has continued to see an impressive increase in property millionaires year-on-year.
éThe boom across the UK in the last 10 years has dramatically increased the number of people with serious property wealth. If the rate of increase over the last decade continues, there will be more than one million %property millionaires by 2018 and more than two million by 2020.é.é

Selwyn Demmy made millions by selling off the three betting shop empires he built up over the last 45 years. But, at the age of 73, he makes just as much from his property empire as he does from the telephone betting business he just canét give up.

He said: éI canét say how much, but Iéve made a substantial amount of money from the property game. Ités simply a case of being sensible and knowing a good opportunity when you see one.

éI got started because I always owned a few shops across Manchester with the betting businesses, and, whenever I sold the businesses, I always tried to retain the properties.

éThe knack was always to buy at the right price and at the right time. And I was always able to do it by way of a sideline, while betting was my main business.é But lucrative though it has been, Selwyn could never bring himself to make it his main business, such was his love of the races.

He said: éIt was never hard work, and it still isnét, but there arenét the characters and the excitement involved as there are in betting. I could never go in for it except as a part-time thing.

éBut, over the years, it has been good to me, and things always tended to come right. If you have the right property and the right tenant, everything runs like a dream.é

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