It’s no secret that house prices in the UK have seen strong growth over the last decade. With more than a 50% rise in the value of houses during a ten year period, the collective homeowners of Britain are now sitting on a fortune of &5.6 Trillion.

To put into perspective for you, that means the UK housing market is now worth that the entire collective fortune of the world’s 1,810 Billionaires.

According to Halifax, the total value of the UK’s privately-owned homes has jumped by &1.9tn since 2006. In the last year, the value of private housing stock has grown by &337bn.

Looking at the value of an individual property, the average value of a property has risen from &173,837 in 2006 to &241,682 in 2016. That’s a rise of &67,845 over a decade, or over &10,000 a year!

So what’s the cause?
In a report compiled by Halifax, the source of this dramatic rise in the value of properties is believed to have been caused by rising house prices and increased home ownership, which has led to an impressive rise in the amount of properties available being privately rented.

Property values have soared by 51% since 2006, which is significantly higher than the retail price index, which rose by 33% over the same period.
At the same time the number of homes currently privately owner has jumped from 21.3m to 23.1m.

London and the south east have seen the biggest increases in housing wealth with the partnership of strong price gains and rising numbers of households. The price of privately-owned housing in London has doubled from &655bn to &1.3tn, whilst the price of the southeast has risen by 61%.

Meanwhile areas like the east and Scotland have been on the receiving end of strong gains at 60% and 51% respectively.

However, despite the rapid rise in house prices the north-south gap has widened during the past decade, with the value of private homes in the south rising by 70%, compared with a gain of just 27% in northern ones.