 In 2018 those selling their home did so for £88,470 more than they paid for it. This is £2,110 less than in 2017.

 Over 2018 more people sold their home for a profit. 91 per cent of sellers sold their property for more than they bought it for, up from 90 per cent in 2017.

 London sellers made the biggest gains of £237,190, or 2.7 times more than the average seller in England and Wales.

IN 2018 the average seller sold their home for £88,470 more than they paid for it, having owned the home for an average of nine years (table 1).

This is slightly down from the £90,580 which the average seller in England and Wales made in 2017.

Londoners made the biggest gains of £237,190, 2.7 times more than the average gain in England and Wales.

Meanwhile sellers in the north east made the smallest average profit of £25,190 (table 1).

Except for London and the south east, every region saw a rise in the proportion of sellers making a profit on their home (table 1).

In 2018, 91 per cent of sellers sold their home for more than they bought it for, up from 90 per cent in 2017 and 89 per cent in 2016.

However, as house price growth slowed, the proportion of sellers making a profit in London fell from 98 per cent in 2017 to 97 per cent in 2018.

In a change from 2017, sellers in the east of England (98 per cent) outperformed London sellers (97 per cent) to be the most likely to make a profit in 2018.

Yet just under three per cent (2.7 per cent) more sellers in Wales made a profit than in 2017, 2.3 per cent more in Yorkshire and Humber and 1.5 per cent in the north west.

But as well as making the smallest average gain, sellers in the north east were least likely to make a profit, with just 70 per cent of sellers making a gain after selling their home in 2018 (table 1).

With the highest house prices and strongest price growth over the last nine years, the top 10 places in 2018 where sellers made the largest gains were in London.

Like in 2017, Kensington and Chelsea sellers made the biggest average profit in the country at £992,340 - over 11 times more than the average gain made in England and Wales (£88,470).

The City of Westminster (£583,700), Camden (£434,030) and Hammersmith and Fulham (£419,960) followed with the greatest gains (table 2).

South Buckinghamshire was the local authority outside of the capital where the average seller made the largest profit (£260,993).

Meanwhile in the Midlands and north of England sellers in Trafford (average gain £112,880), Warwick (average gain £108,510) and Solihull (average gain £102,880) made the biggest average profit in 2018 (table 3).

Commenting Aneisha Beveridge, Head of Research at Hamptons International said: “House prices have grown considerably over the nine-year period that the average seller has owned their home. As a result, the proportion of sellers making a profit on their property continues to rise. Many sellers will have added value by renovating, extending or developing, but the bulk of their gains have come from house price growth.

“Despite the proportion of sellers making a profit rising, the average gain dipped in 2018. With more sellers in the north but fewer sellers in London making a profit in 2018, the average gain has fallen since 2017. This is because sellers in the north don’t tend to make as bigger gains as those sellers in the south. However even with house price growth slowing across Great Britain, most owners are still sitting on plenty of growth from previous years.”