Property Accounts for Half the Nations Wealth

According to the study, conducted by Datamonitor, more than half of the UK's personal wealth is now tied up in property.Rising house prices mean that property now accounts for 55 per cent of the wealth held by Britons, the study commissioned by Prudential found.

Property owners in south-east England were found to have the highest amount of equity in their homes, at an average of £210,077, followed by those in the east of the county who were found to hold £183,805 and in London where average levels of equity were £169,477.

But while those in the north-east, north-west and Scotland were found to have the lowest amount of equity in their homes, Scottish and Welsh property owners, along with those in the north-east, had also experienced the highest percentage increases in the overall level of spare cash held in their houses.