The Halifax (www.halifax.co.uk) produced a very interesting report on the total value of UK residential housing: £6,015 Billion

https://static.halifax.co.uk/assets/pdf/media-centre/press-releases/2017-11-29-total-value-of-housing-stock-6trillion-press-release.pdf

The total value of all the houses in the UK has passed the £6tn mark for the first time, according to The Halifax which also highlights the vast concentration of property wealth in London and the south-east. The value of homes in London is now more than all the houses in Scotland, Wales and the north of England combined. The research also reveals how property values in the south have escalated since the financial crash of 2007-08, despite incomes remaining relatively flat. In 2007 Halifax estimated that the UK’s housing stock was worth a total of £4,077bn, but over the past 10 years the figure has risen to £6.015 Trillion

To put the £6tn figure into context, it is nearly four times the size of the UK’s national debt, which is currently just over £1.8tn, and three times our total national output in 2016 (around £2tn). But even if every house in Britain was sold, the money raised would pay off less than half of the US’s national debt.

The big rises in the value of the UK’s housing stock have mostly taken place in the south. In 2007, the value of housing in the north-east was estimated at £114bn, but today it stands at £136bn – an increase of £22bn.

But in London, houses have jumped in value from £718bn in 2007 to £1,338bn today, a gain of £620bn. Over the same period the value of properties in Northern Ireland actually fell.

In total, 68% of private property wealth, amounting to £3.8tn, is concentrated in the south, up from 62% in 2007. The stock of privately owned homes in Britain also increased in number from 21.5m to 23.4m. Among the biggest gainers of property wealth in the south have been landlords and second home owners. Halifax said that while the average rate of owner-occupation in the UK was 63%, it stands at just 48% in London.

The vast majority of housing wealth is owned by the over-55s. Halifax estimated that under 35-year-olds own just 3.3% of the UK’s net property wealth, while the over-55s hold 63.3%.