Prime London house prices: Kensington and Chelsea tops the list of the capital's most expensive boroughs

Kensington and Chelsea is still the capital's most expensive borough for home hunters.

Despite annual growth of just 3.6 per cent, the average cost of buying a home in the district is £1.37 million, according to the latest Land Registry figures.

Hot on Kensington and Chelsea's heels is the City of Westminster, another of the capital's "million-pound boroughs", where annual average house prices growing at almost double the rate have reached £1.04 million.

However, compared to a year ago, million-pound London property sales have slipped back two per cent, after stamp duty reform levied higher taxes at the middle and top end of the market, according to Peter Rollings, chief executive of Marsh & Parsons.

More Londoners now live east of Tower Bridge than to the west of the city, and the demand for homes on this side of the capital continues to soar.

Highlighting the eastwards shift, the borough of Hackney recorded the biggest growth of the capital's top 10 prime locations, with a 12-month rise of 7.9 per cent taking average prices in hipster hotspots such as Shoreditch, Hoxton and Dalston to £638,284.

The smallest house price growth across the top 10 prime boroughs over the past year was 3.3 per cent in Hammersmith and Fulham.

With all prime boroughs showing growth since September last year, Jonathan Hudson, London executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, comments: "It seems that the dust is settling after the Conservative election win in May, and that London property is once again perceived as a more stable investment for the global market."