UK total assets worth £6 trillion

Most of the UK's money and wealth is still tied up in bricks and mortar

UK assets were worth £6 trillion at the end of 2005, with property accounting for most of that wealth, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

The ONS said the UK's total wealth went up by £119bn from the end of 2004.

Property was worth £3.58 trillion in 2005, up 4% from the previous year. Real estate accounted for 59% of total UK wealth, according to the ONS.

Many analysts in the UK have been questioning the strength of future house price growth.

Upward trend

Recent figures from the Halifax, the UK's largest mortgage lender, showed that prices fell unexpectedly in June.

However, that decline came after several months of buoyant growth that had topped many market forecasts.

The Halifax has been keen to play down the threat of a housing crash, pointing to the UK's steady economic growth and interest rates.

Should those conditions continue, then that would point to an increase in value of the total assets of UK and its inhabitants in 2006, analysts said.

The long-term trend has been one of appreciation and the ONS said that between 1948 and 2003 the total value of non-financial assets in the UK increased from £551b to £2.55 trillion.

And it is not just property that has been gaining. The value of plant and machinery in use increased by 6% over the past five years, the ONS said.