Value of housing stock soars over the past decade
The last few years have been tough for landlords, with residential lettings agents witnessing a downturn in the number of properties growing in value on the market.
Luckily, this is a situation that now looks to be reversing itself, with figures published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders last week indicating that 84,000 new buy-to-let properties were purchased in the fourth quarter of 2011 as a result of strong demand among tenants.
But if anyone remains unconvinced about the enduring value of private property as an investment, a new report from the Halifax should put to bed any myths about the state of the property market.
Despite difficulties since the credit crunch took hold in 2007, the total value of the UK's housing stock has risen by £1.8 trillion in the past decade.
According to the Halifax report, based on data from the Communities and Local Government, this represents an 84 per cent rise in the value of British property over the past ten years, with the housing stock worth approximately £3.9 billion today.
For buy-to-let property owners, it seems times are good – with the inherent value of their real estate rising, while strong tenant demand is also keeping rents nice and buoyant.
This is more than enough to wipe out the short-term losses that have been seen since 2007. In this window,, prices have fallen by a modest five per cent (£187 billion).
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: "The value of UK's housing stock has soared in the decade to 2011 notwithstanding the decline in house prices seen since autumn 2007, rising by 84 per cent to just under £4 trillion at the end of 2011.
"Whilst outstanding mortgage debt has more than doubled over the last ten years, the value of the housing stock has risen by more in monetary terms. As a result, the total value of housing equity has shown a healthy increase. For most homeowners housing is still very much the main store of private wealth."
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