Homeowner assets boosting household wealth

A significant increase in the value of the UK's housing assets has helped boost the net worth of the UK by five per cent in just one year, new figures show.

The UK's worth on the free market totalled £6,525 billion, or £6.525 trillion at the end of 2006, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), with housing assets accounting for 60 per cent of this figure.

In 2005 housing accounted for just 50 per cent, exemplifying the extent to which prices have contributed to overall figures.

Housing assets now have a total value of £3,915 billion, the ONS has revealed, with £3,696 billion of this coming from individual households or housing organisations.

"It would seem that most of the country's wealth is in the hands of individual households - or the banks if you look at it from a mortgage point of view," a spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

The current annual rate of inflation in the housing market is still over ten per cent, according to recent house price indices.


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