UK house prices: These are the 10 most expensive homes sold in Britain in 2014

A London flat tops the list at £50 million

UK house prices have dropped off slightly since November's all-time high, Nationwide revealed today – but that will be little consolation to the thousands of British buyers struggling to afford their dream home.

And while the average house price has now fallen to £188,559 across the country, the land registry has confirmed that a single flat was sold in 2014 for a staggering £50 million.

The new-build property in Princes Gate, London was bought in July and would have been charged £3.5 million in stamp duty alone.

It tops the list of the highest-value house sales in 2014, and was at the pinnacle of a group of more than 11,000 properties that went for more than £1 million.

Closely behind it was, amazingly, another flat. The property at Chesham Place in Kensington and Chelsea was sold for £46,013,365 in a deal that went through in October, the Land Registry has confirmed.

The most expensive property in 2014 actually classed as a full house came third, selling for £27.9 million. The home on Thornwood Gardens near the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s residence at Kensington Palace changed hands in February.

London was, perhaps unsurprisingly, named the UK’s “top performer” by Nationwide for price growth in 2014, after they rose in December by 17.8 per cent year on year to an average of £406,730.

But it was a different story for Wales and the North, with a 0 per cent increase in prices in Manchester seeing it named the “worst-performing” city. Houses there cost £210,685 on average.

Nationwide's chief economist, Robert Gardner, said the figures were promising for those hoping to see housing market activity return.

“There are encouraging signs that construction is starting to pick up,” he said. “Hopefully, this will set the stage for house price growth gradually converging with income growth in the quarters ahead.

“Recent changes to stamp duty may also have a modest positive effect on demand, especially in the South of England and Scotland.”

For the full list of the UK’s most expensive homes sold in 2014, click through the gallery above.