Last updated 05:28, Friday, 20 June 2008

Britons have collectively seen nearly £300 billion wiped off the value of their homes since house prices first began to fall.

For sale, for less: But experts say recent price falls should be seen in the context of strong gains in recent years, with the value of Britain’s housing stock soaring by £750 billion during the past three years and £1.7 trillion during the past five years before the current downturn

The collective value of residential property in Great Britain has slumped to £5.836 trillion from more than £6.1 trillion when prices peaked in September last year, according to property valuation website Zoopla.co.uk.

The group said the current market downturn had led to more than £1 billion a day being wiped off the collective value of British homes.

But it added that the recent price falls should be seen in the context of strong gains in recent years, with the value of Britain’s housing stock soaring by £750 billion during the past three years and £1.7 trillion during the past five years.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of Britain’s housing wealth is concentrated in London, with homes in the capital collectively valued at £776.26 billion, accounting for 13.3 per cent of the total.

Only four other cities in the country account for more than one per cent of the total, with Bristol having property worth £76.22 billion, followed by Glasgow at £75.16 billion, Birmingham at £67.96 billion and Manchester at £64.19 billion.

The other cities to make it into the top 10 for the total value of their housing stock are Edinburgh, Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield.

Cardiff is the highest-ranked Welsh city in 18th place with its homes collectively worth £28.52 billion or 0.49 per cent of the total.

The research also showed that the majority of the country’s housing wealth is in England, with residential property here valued at £5.2 trillion or 89 per cent of the total, while homes in Scotland are worth £401 billion of nearly seven per cent of the total and the value of property in Wales stands at £219 billion or nearly four per cent.

Meanwhile, local business search website touchlocal.com said it had seen a steep fall in the number of people looking for estate agents and mortgage brokers since the beginning of the year.

The group said that, between January and the end of May, there had been a 36 per cent drop in the number of people searching its site for local estate agents, while searches for mortgage brokers had fallen by 24 per cent as people put plans to move on hold due to the current problems in the housing market.

“Despite the recent market downturn, it is clear that the British property market remains one of the most valuable in the world on a per capita basis,” said Alex Chesterman, chief executive of Zoopla.co.uk.

“The past few months have been challenging but the long term trend is extremely positive.”

A survey of experts claims house prices will take more than four years to rise above their 2007 peak.

The prediction was made by more than 60 per cent of 225 members of the Society of Business Economists (SBE) surveyed for the latest edition of ITV1’s Tonight programme.

House prices could fall by up to 20 per cent from the top of the market, according to 56 per cent of respondents, although 20 per cent took an even more pessimistic view, forecasting that property values could slump by as much as 30 per cent.

More than half the experts from banks, building societies and industry said house prices would fall by between six per cent and 10 per cent this year.

The market will hit rock bottom next year, according to 44 per cent of those surveyed.