Being a millionaire no longer brings luxury lifestyle, First Direct says The bank found that in 1992, £1 million could buy all the hallmarks of a luxury lifestyle: a house in Kensington and Chelsea, a Rolls Royce Phantom, a seagoing luxury yacht, and holiday homes in Tuscany and Cornwall, For example the price of an average house in Kensington and Chelsea has risen from £346,000 in 1992 to £1.4 million today. A luxury yacht has risen in price from £300,000 to £509,000. Bruno Genovese, head of savings at First Direct, said that the things that a million pounds can buy have become "increasingly modest" in the last 20 years. The cost of living continues to rise. The Office for National Statistics said yesterday that inflation in May was 2.8 per cent, down from 3 per cent in April but still above the Bank of England's target of 2 per cent. People's perceptions of what counts as rich are changing, First Direct found. It said that three in ten people no longer see £1 million as a "large" sum of money. Meanwhile, almost half of the 2,000 people that the bank polled said they class £5 million as a "large" amount of money.