Taylor Scott International News
The total value of Britain’s housing stock has passed the £6 trillion mark for the first time after gains of £385 billion in 2015, according to new research. Housing wealth stands at £4.84 trillion, net of mortgage debt, or 2.7 times GDP and for owner occupiers with no mortgage total property wealth exceeded £2 trillion for the first time, the analysis from real estate adviser Savills shows. It also reveals that the private rented sector’s total value is now £1.29 trillion, up 55% in five years with number of homes in the sector up 28%. Net wealth passed £1 trillion in 2015, overtaking that held by mortgaged owner occupiers for the first time. The total value of homes in London exceeded £1.5 trillion for the first time at £1.612 trillion, accounting for more than a quarter of the total value of housing stock in the UK and having risen by £589 billion in five years. The South of England saw total value growth of £179 billion, exceeding London growth for the first time in five years while Bristol saw the biggest increase in total housing stock value outside of London, up £4.5 billion to £44 billion. The report points out that residential property has become an increasingly important store of wealth. Total equity now stands at around £4.8 trillion net of borrowing, equivalent to over 2.7 times the GDP of the UK. Over the past 10 years the total value of the UK’s homes has risen by over £1.6 trillion, but the biggest growth, almost £1.2 trillion, was seen in the past three years. This means the UK’s 28.2 million homes of all tenure now have an average value of £218,474, up 18.9% in five years. ‘Value and gains vary sharply according to location and ownership. Gains have been concentrated in equity rich markets, notably London and the south east, particularly benefitting those who own their homes outright. In 2015, for the first time, the total value of owner occupied homes without a mortgage exceeded the total value of those with a mortgage,’ said Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills. ‘While the difficulties faced in getting on and trading up the housing ladder and the consequential rise in private renting is well documented, these figures show the scale of the change and challenges faced by Government,’ he added. London and the South East accounted for 57% of total value gains at £218 billion in 2015 and now have a total value of almost £2.8 trillion. This means that 26% of the UK’s homes now account for 45% of the total value, and takes the average value of a home in London to £430,436 and £284,805 in the South East. At the other end of the spectrum, the total value of homes in the North East equates to less than a tenth of London’s value, having risen just 2.2% in 2015. At a total of £135 billion, the region’s… Taylor Scott International
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