UK NEWS
£300BN WIPED OFF VALUE OF HOMES
Britons have seen nearly £300bn wiped off value of their homes
Britons have collectively seen nearly £300 billion wiped off the value of their homes since house prices first began to fall, research has showed.
The collective value of residential property in Great Britain has slumped to £5.836 trillion from more than £6.1 trillion when prices peaked in September last year, according to property valuation website Zoopla.co.uk.
The group said the current market downturn had led to more than £1 billion a day being wiped off the collective value of British homes.
But it added that the recent price falls should be seen in the context of strong gains in recent years, with the value of Britain's housing stock soaring by £750 billion during the past three years and £1.7 trillion during the past five years.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of Britain's housing wealth is concentrated in London, with homes in the capital collectively valued at £776.26 billion, accounting for 13.3% of the total.
Only four other cities in the country account for more than 1% of the total, with Bristol having property worth £76.22 billion, followed by Glasgow at £75.16 billion, Birmingham at £67.96 billion and Manchester at £64.19 billion.
The other cities to make it into the top 10 for the total value of their housing stock are Edinburgh, Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield.
Cardiff is the highest ranked Welsh city in 18th place with its homes collectively worth £28.52 billion or 0.49% of the total.
The research also showed that the majority of the country's housing wealth is in England, with residential property here valued at £5.2 trillion or 89% of the total, while homes in Scotland are worth £401 billion of nearly 7% of the total and the value of property in Wales stands at £219 billion or nearly 4%.
