The performance of the prime central London property market has become more fragmented and nuanced as sales volumes and prices stabilise.

That’s according to a review of the London residential market by agent Knight Frank.

Overall transaction numbers rose 1% in prime central London in 2017, as compared to the year before, while it has now been five years since a double-digit price movement in the market either up or down (in percentage terms).

Knight Frank’s report, based on LonRes data, found that the number of transactions in prime central London betwee £1m and £2m fell 13% in the final quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, there was a 9% rise between £5m and £10m.

This marked a reversal of an earlier trend following the introduction of higher rates of Stamp Duty in 2014, the agent’s head of London residential research, Tom Bill, said.

He added that the turnaround suggested higher transaction costs had become more fully assimilated in higher price brackets after an initially steeper decline in trading volumes.

While the £5m to £10m price band experienced the largest annual price declines between October 2015 and February 2017, it accounted for the strongest growth between June 2017 and January 2018.

Meanwhile, supply levels in the prime London lettings market have declined, as more property owners sense the sales market bottoming out.

At the super-prime (£5,000-plus per week) end of the market, a record number of tenancies were agreed in 2017, and agents even hailed the arrival of a new breed of super-prime landlord.

But the number of properties listed for rent in the final three months of last year was 19% lower than the same period in 2016 and was the lowest quarterly figure since the first quarter of 2015, Rightmove data shows.

* Separately, Jersey estate agent Wilsons has launched a business partnership with Knight Frank to help source more buyers for property on the island.

The two firms had a pre-existing informal agreement to help generate buyers for properties but now have decided to formalise their relationship with the creation of Wilsons Knight Frank.