The total value of all homes across the UK now stands at £8.678trn, research from Savills has revealed.
The analysis of the UK’s housing stock revealed the total value had fallen marginally on 2022 when values peaked.
However, this remains £1.585trn higher than before the pandemic in 2019.
Savills head of residential research, Lucian Cook, said: “Despite higher mortgage costs, the market’s resilience means UK housing continues to be a significant, and a relatively secure, store of wealth.
“Even after deducting outstanding mortgage debt of £1.652trn, our figures show that net housing wealth continued to exceed £7trn, a figure 2.6 times that size of the UK’s economy.”
“We may see the cost of mortgages ebb and flow over the course of 2024, as markets respond to changing expectations of when and how much the Bank of England will cut the base rate.
“But over the medium term we expect affordability pressure to ease, meaning that the recent loss in value should be short lived.”
The research also found that falls in value were concentrated in the south as the total value of London’s housing stocked decreased by £39.3bn or 2.1 per cent.
Additionally, the South East, South West, and East of England saw a combined £16.5bn fall, representing a decrease of 0.5 per cent.
In contrast, markets further from London which have a greater capacity for growth, saw values increase on the year.
The most significant of these uplifts occurred in Nothern Ireland, which increased by 3.2 per cent, the North East (1.4 per cent), Scotland (1.3 per cent), and the East Midlands (1.3 per cent).
However, while London accounts for the largest proportion of the total value of UK housing, since 2016 it has only accounted for 12.01 per cent of total growth.
As a result, its proportion of the total value of UK housing has fallen from a high of 24 per cent to a “more normal” 21 per cent in 2023.
Outright owner occupiers continued to be the major beneficiaries of value growth and homes owned outright now account for almost 40 per cent of the total value of all UK housing.
The analysis showed the value of property held by unmortgaged and mortgaged owner occupiers increased by £1.505trn over the past decade.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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