Homes account for sixty per cent of UK wealth
Sixty per cent of wealth in the UK is tied up in our homes, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).These new figures show just how dominant the housing market has become over recent years, accounting for around £3.9 trillion of the UK's estimated £6.5 trillion wealth, up ten per cent on the previous year. The ONS figures show that that measurable wealth is worth over five times the annual output of the economy, but that this wealth is highly reliant on the housing market, particularly given the decline of the manufacturing industry.Figures going back twenty years were released by the ONS, showing an increase of 500 per cent in UK assets from £1.7 trillion to £6.5 trillion - with house prices rising by over half in the time Labour has been in power alone - from £1.42 trillion to £3.91 trillion. The figures and the long-term rise in house prices they show put recent fears of an impending housing crash and a slight flattening in the market into perspective.Whilst the most recent report on the property market from Rightmove may show a slowing in house price inflation from its four-year high of 15 per cent in April this year, to its current 10.3 per cent, demand is still high - particularly in London, where prices have risen by 21.7 per cent in the last year.
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