Properties in the capital worth over £1m take an average of just 53 days to be snapped up by a buyer - 23 days faster than last year and almost twice as fast as the national average of 99 days.

Scotland as a whole is one of the fastest regions to sell a £1m-plus home, with a typical property going in just 94 days, 19 days faster than twelve months ago. In contrast, it takes sellers in Wales 174 days to sell a top-end property - the slowest in Britain.

The top five fastest selling million-pound locations are all outside London, with Harpenden, situated close to St Albans, sharing second place with the Scottish capital, according to the analysis by Rightmove.

Bristol and St Albans complete the top five, with top-end homes there selling in 54 days and 60 days on average.

Rightmove housing market analyst Miles Shipside said: “Hotspots like Cambridge have helped the east of England take over the mantle from London in recent years.”

He continued: “The Scottish million-pound plus market has also picked up as the increased activity in the overall housing market in Scotland is having a positive knock-on effect on the higher end, especially in cities like Edinburgh.”

He added: “Those lucky enough to be selling a home worth a million or more should think carefully about what they can do to make their home stand out. They should also bear in mind that it could take some months to secure an offer so putting their home on the market now will prevent a mad rush to find a buyer when they find something that they have their heart set on.”

The research was based on property listings for homes marketed at £1 million or more on Rightmove’s website, looking at the number of days between a property first being listed and being marked as under offer or sold subject to contract.

Simon Rettie, managing director of Scottish high-end estate agency Rettie and Co, said that the initial impact of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), was beginning to improve, adding that sales at the top end of the market were picking up.

The tax, which was introduced by the Scottish Government in April 2015, can see an extra £45,000 added to the cost of a £1 million home if the property is bought in Scotland rather than England. Property professionals warned in advance of its introduction that it could impact the higher end of the market and the Scottish Government is coming under increasing pressure to reconsider the measure.

Rettie said in the report: “When the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax was first introduced a few years ago it did temporarily slow down sales of homes at the top end of the market, but as confidence and demand has picked up in the overall Scottish market recently, this has led to million pound homes selling much more quickly again.”

A report published by estate agent McEwan Fraser Legal a year ago found that the LBTT had caused £1m-plus transactions to plummet in the first half of 2017.

Edinburgh fastest place to sell Â£1 million homes