House prices driving British wealth

Britons collectively had assets worth £6.336 trillion at the end of last year, after outstanding debt was taken into account, up from £2.795 trillion at the end of 1996, according to Halifax Financial Services.

The group said the total value of people's assets rose by £4.343 billion during the past decade, massively outstripping the £802 billion rise in debt during the same period. Unsurprisingly, a large part of the gain in household wealth was driven by booming house prices, with rises in the value of property accounting for more than half of the gain.

At the end of last year, Britons were sitting on housing equity worth £2.702 trillion once mortgage debt had been stripped out, 244% more than the £787 billion of housing equity they had in 1996. The group added that the 216% growth in the overall value of housing assets comfortably outstripped the 163% rise in mortgage debt during the period.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax Financial Services, said: "The financial position of households in total has strengthened substantially over the past decade. Whilst much has been said about the rise in debt, it is important to note that the value of households' assets has risen at a faster pace.

"Housing has played an important part in increasing wealth, but there has also been a significant rise in the value of investments in financial assets in the last 10 years."

The booming property market has led to housing making up an increasingly large chunk of people's assets, with it now accounting for 43% of people's total net wealth, up from just 28% in 1996. This gain was mirrored by a fall in the value of financial assets as a proportion of total wealth, with these dropping to account for 57% of all assets, down from 72% 10 years earlier.

The level of savings people hold has doubled during the past decade to be worth £960 billion at the end of last year, and Halifax predicts cash holdings will breach the £1 trillion barrier by the end of this year.

Total financial savings, including cash, shares and pensions, are expected to be worth more than £4 trillion by the end of the 2007, three times more than the level of household debt.

The value of these financial savings has risen by 84% during the past decade to be worth £3.846 trillion last year. Halifax said money held in savings accounts currently accounted for around a quarter of all financial savings. But it said the amount of financial wealth people held in deposit accounts was likely to increase due to the recent volatility in share prices.