Scottish million pound pads lead the UK

But across Great Britain as a whole the number of million pound property sales increased by only 2%.

Nitesh Patel, Bank of Scotland housing economist, said: "Scotland outperformed the rest of Britain on million pound property sales with an increase of 14% compared to just 2% nationally. While we see an 18% drop in the number of Edinburgh properties sold the city of Aberdeen saw a very solid 46% increase over the year. Strong demand from wealthy cash rich buyers, particularly those associated with the oil industry, as well as limited supply has support this segment of the market."

The million pound sector outperformed the rest of the market with sales under £1m falling by 6% in 2012.

But the findings showed the number of properties selling for over £1m is still very small in relation to the rest of market accounting for 0.2% of all housing sales in Scotland.

Overall total home sales in Scotland rose by 4% from 70,035 in 2011 to 72,836 in 2012.

The sales of millionaire pads fluctuated across regions; in the East Midlands the increase was 12% and Greater London rose by 6% between 2011 and 2012. The remaining eight regions in Great Britain recorded a fall in million pound sales in 2012.

Wales saw the biggest drop in million pound sales with a 71% decline followed by the North East which experienced a 40% drop.

London and the South East continued to account for the overwhelming majority (85%) of all million pound sales in Great Britain in 2012. Million pound sales are a much greater proportion of the market in London than elsewhere in Britain, representing 5.6% of all sales in the capital in 2012.