The total value of homes in Britain has risen by 20% – a huge £1.6tn – in the past five years, according to new data from Zoopla.
There has been a sharp acceleration in the total value over the past year in particular, driven by soaring demand for homes and the pandemic-led search for space. Of the £1.6tn, over a third (£550bn) of the increase has been in the last 12 months.
With almost 12 million homes increasing in value by the national average of £49,000 or more over the past five years, homeowners can use Zoopla’s My Home to see how much their home is worth.
The total value of homes in Britain currently stands at a staggering £9.2tn. The majority of this (£8.2bn) is held within 23.5 million privately-owned homes, whilst a further £1tn is held within five million social homes.
Sustained price growth in the housing market since 2016 has been underpinned by ultra-low mortgage rates. Over the last 18 months, increased demand and limited supply has put further upward pressure on prices while the pandemic has led to many reevaluating what they want from a home.
To put the huge figures into perspective, the total value of UK homes (£9.2tn) is more than four times the GDP of the UK and over four times the value of the entire FTSE100. The rise of £1.6tn over the past five years alone is around the same figure as the market cap of Apple – the world’s most valuable company.
When looking at privately owned homes and accounting for outstanding mortgage debt – of which there is currently £1.6tn – £6.6tn of the equity is currently in the hands of owners of privately-owned homes.
There is a high concentration of value in some specific local authorities. For example, the value of homes in the City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (£306bn) – which combined cover an area of just 13 square miles – is higher than all the homes in the North West (£197bn) and roughly the same as Wales (£308bn).
But it’s not just multi-million pound addresses that are recording significant price increases. Instead, 11.9m homes have registered an above average price rise (+£49,000) over the last five years. 88% of homes in Monmouthshire have risen by more than the average while Hastings and Trafford are also in the top three, with 83% and 82% of homes in these local authorities rising by £49,000 or more since 2016.
Gráinne Gilmore , Head of Research, Zoopla, comments:
“The value of Britain’s residential property has continued to climb over the last five years, speeding up over the last 12 months as house price growth has escalated. The price and density of homes dictate where the largest concentrations of housing value are located, however, in some local authorities, more than two-thirds of homes have risen by more than the average.
