BALLOONING house prices have created another 160,000 property millionaires in Britain over the past year, housing website Zoopla revealed yesterday.

It brings the number of home-owners who can claim the dubious distinction to 484,081.

Website spokesman Lawrence Hall gushed that “London boasts all of Britain’s priciest addresses” and advised super-rich speculators that houses in Kensington Palace Gardens — now with an average price-tag of £42.7 million — or The Boltons, where a typical residence costs £26.5m, were “offering very strong returns.”

But campaigners warned that house-price inflation did nothing for the majority of Britons and would price ordinary people even further out of the market.

“This isn’t going to help millions trapped in unsuitable and inadequate private rental,” said Defend Council Housing chair Eileen Short.

“Most people know full well that the market isn’t working or providing the housing people need. People can see through this fluff and nonsense.

“Wherever you live, the main concern is the security of a roof over your head. Whatever the trajectory of mortgage booms and busts, we need serious investment in a new generation of good quality, energy-efficient council homes.”

Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said the rising prices were “no basis for a solid economic recovery.

“A massive public-sector house-building programme would stimulate supply, create a million jobs and provide much-needed housing.

“But soaring prices combined with the reckless expansion of personal debt stores up severe problems for the future and increases the danger of a repeat of the 2008 financial crash.”