Value of UK private housing stock passes £5 trillion

Property wealth boost in all UK regions over the last ten years.

The value of UK residential property stock has soared 57% in a decade, according to new research from Halifax.

It's now estimated to be worth some £5.06 trillion, up from £3.22 trillion in 2004.

The £1.83 trillion increase equates to an average £79,262 rise in the value of each UK household in the past decade.

This growth has significantly outstripped the cost of living, with the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure of inflation up 37% over the same period.

Interestingly a third of the total rise in the last decade has come in the past year alone.

Over the last 12 months the value of the UK’s private housing stock has grown 14% or £630 billion – the fastest annual growth since 2002.

Regionally, London and the South East accounted for more than half of the total growth recorded in this time, with values rising £217 billion and £123 billion respectively.

Halifax says new build homes coming to the market, coupled with an increase in average property values, have driven the significant change.

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Growth for all

Halifax reports all 12 regions of the UK have experienced a positive shift in the value of housing stock over the past ten years.

Source: Halifax

The region that’s seen the biggest growth is London, where the value of housing stock more than doubled, up 109% from £545 billion in 2004 to £1.14 trillion in 2014.

The capital is followed by Scotland (96% increase from £170 billion to £333 billion), the South East (55% increase from £611 billion to £950 billion), the East (52% increase from £350 billion to £530 billion) and Yorkshire and the Humber (42% increase from £204 billion to £289 billion).

The regions that experienced the most conservative rises were the East Midlands (32% increase from £207 billion to £273 billion) and the North East (33% increase from £90 billion to £120 billion).

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Housing equity boost

Housing equity has also experienced healthy growth in the last decade, soaring 61%.

Though the value of outstanding mortgage debt has risen 47% since 2004 from £877 billion to £1.29 trillion, the value of private housing stock has grown by more than four times as much.

UK households today are worth £3.76 trillion more than the total value of outstanding mortgage debt. This is the equivalent to an average of £162,510 worth of equity per household in the UK.

Again this positive shift in housing equity has occurred in all regions of the UK, but there is a wide variation in the benefit.

Source: Halifax

On average the highest amounts of housing equity is found in London where it totals £820 billion - equivalent to £313,466 per household.

The capital is followed by the South East (£726 billion or £219,163 per household), the East (£447 billion or £203,462 per household) and the South West (£348 billion or £161,418 per household),

Outside of southern England, the next highest equity levels were in Scotland (£249 billion or £126,930 per household) followed by the West Midlands (£248 billion or £125,532 per household), the East Midlands (£212 billion, or £124,980 per household) and Wales (£128 billion or £111,704 per household).

The lowest housing equity is found in Northern Ireland (£14 billion or £21,519 per household) and the North East (£84 billion or £91,641 per household).

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