One-third of London’s £783billion-worth of homes are rented

The collective value of all 3.36 million homes in London has risen to a record £783 billion. Figures released today show the capital’s housing stock has increased in value by 20 per cent in five years — a bigger jump than any other UK region.

The show-stopping headline figure, which covers all 33 boroughs, reveals how privately rented homes now account for almost a third of the value of the capital’s stock — 10 years ago it was less than a fifth.

The value of homes in the rental sector has risen dramatically to £241 billion – up 56 per cent in the last five years. This reflects a significant switch from owner occupation to renting, as twenty and thirty-somethings struggle to get onto the property ladder. Search for property to rent in London.

“The average deposit that a first time buyer is putting down is £56,000 – five years ago it was £19,000,” said Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills, who carried out the research.“That £56,000 is higher than the average annual income in London, which is why so many people are having to rent.”

The new landlords, said Cook, include accidental landlords who are renting out homes which they cannot sell, small-time investors looking for a safe haven for their money, and institutional investors who are honing in on London.

The borough with the most valuable property stock in London is Kensington and Chelsea, where the total value of properties has increased by over 40 per cent in the last five years – you’d need to spend £65 billion to buy every home in the borough. Search: property for sale in Kensington | homes for sale in Chelsea.

But, at the other end of the scale, you could buy every house in Barking and Dagenham for “just” £7.4 billion, more than two per cent down since 2007. Find property for sale in Barking | homes for sale in Dagenham.

To put these figures into context, Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate and Britain’ s richest man with a fortune estimated at £17.5bn, could afford to buy every home in Greenwich with a total value of £17.7bn. Search for property in Greenwich.

But Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the world’s richest man according to Forbes magazine, could buy up every home in Islington (£28.7 billion) and still have £8.7 billion to spare. Find homes in Islington.

Cook said that the boroughs enjoying strong growth in total property values – Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington and Westminster – are likely to lead the property recovery, while the nine boroughs where values have fallen will continue to languish.

The nine losers are: Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Havering, Kingston-upon-Thames, Newham, Sutton and Waltham Forest.