The past 70 years have seen dramatic change
Ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, equity release adviser Key Later Life Finance analysed house prices and compared today’s average to that of 70 years ago, at the start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
Key found that average house prices were £1,891 in 1952 and are now £260,771 – an increase of 138 times.
Prices of new houses were 132 times higher, costing an average of £2,107 in 1952 and rising to £279,031 this year.
Estate agent Savills earlier reported that the typical house price 70 years ago was just under £2,000 – equating to around £56,000 today, when taking inflation into account. Another property agent, Yopa, said that today’s house price of £260,771 is the equivalent of £5.59 million in 1952.
Will Hale, chief executive at Key, said that while inflation naturally means that spending power decreases over time, it is sobering to think that today’s monthly household disposable income of £2,616 would have bought a property outright during the Queen’s coronation.
“People trying to buy houses can be excused for wishing we could go back to 1952. That said, the data also demonstrates the long-term strength of the housing market and the value of property wealth as part of most people’s overall assets,” Hale noted.
“While nothing is certain, history suggests that investing in a home pays off over the long term – and increasingly we are finding that people are choosing to capitalise on this investment.”
House prices only grew by 6.7 times on average in the first 25 years of the Queen’s reign up to her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Between the Silver and Golden Jubilee in 2002, prices increased around eight times.
The increase from the Golden to the Diamond in 2012 was 59%, while the rise from the Diamond to the Platinum has been a similar 58%.
