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The value of all UK homes has risen by almost £2 trillion in the past 10 years to exceed £6 trillion, says a new research paper. This is nearly four times the national debt of £1.8 trillion and three times the UK’s national output of £2 trillion.

In London, house prices have almost doubled over the past decade, with the total stock rising from £718 billion to £1.3 trillion. The capital’s property assets are now worth more than the combined total for Scotland, Wales and the North of England.

And whereas 62 per cent of the UK’s private property wealth was concentrated in the South of England in 2007, that figure is now 68 per cent, equal to £3.8 trillion. People over 55 hold 63 per cent of the UK’s net property wealth, compared with just 3.3 per cent of those under 35. In London, rates of owner-occupation stand at 48 per cent, compared with 63 per cent overall, while the number of privately-owned homes in the UK has increased from 21.5 million to 23.4 million.

“The value of housing stock has grown by close to £2 trillion in the past decade, and with the equity-rich regions of London and the southeast largely responsible, it highlights a considerable regional imbalance in the distribution of housing wealth,” said real estate expert Russell Galley. In London, homeowners have an average equity of around £360,000, compared with £134,000 in the north-west of England.