Seventy-nine percent of this total is held as net housing wealth, with £1.32 trillion of mortgage debt set against it. These numbers reflect how housing has become both a source and store of wealth across the UK.

However startling the sheer size of these sums, it is the way housing wealth is distributed that has become most scrutinised by society.

Over £2 trillion of net housing wealth held is by owner occupiers who have paid off their mortgage. Owners of stock in the private rented sector hold broadly the same amount of equity as mortgaged owner occupiers, reflecting the respective rise and decline of each sector.

The value of housing stock in the borough of Kensington & Chelsea alone is more than double the amount handed out in prize money by the National Lottery since its inception in 1994.

Put the Squeeze on

The Government’s response has been to try to reinvigorate homeownership through schemes such as Help to Buy and Starter Homes, to put the squeeze on private landlords and to ratchet up the taxation of high value homes.

Drawing on more detail from our mammoth valuation exercise, this issue of the Residential Property Focus examines the potential impact of that political response.