Forget work, your home’s top earner

YOUR home could be earning more than you are, research has revealed.

Soaring house prices mean more than one in five properties have made more money in the past year than the people who own them.

Property website Zoopla estimates that the value of more than 4.6 million homes – 21 per cent – have risen by more than local average wages.

Houses and flats in the Southwest are likely to be bringing home most of the bacon.

The average salary in the region was £29,016. But the value of 29 per cent of homes there increased by even more.

In Scotland, where the average worker earned £30,940 to April 2020, nine per cent of homes “outperformed” wages.

Homes in the South-east and London commuter hotspots have performed particularly well.

But top of the property payis Hastings, East Sussex, where a whopping 62 per cent of homes rose in value by more than the average salary.

It was followed by the Adur district, just along the south coast in West Sussex, where 60 per cent of house prices shot up by more than average local pay.

The Mole Valley, in Surrey, where the value of more than half of homes – 54 per cent – overtook local salaries – is the third highest hotspot.

It is believed coastal and rural areas have performed strongly because home buyers are seeking to escape the cities after the coronavirus pandemic.

Zoopla’s head of research Grainne Gilmore said the search for space and the stamp duty holiday had boosted demand.

She said: “Hundreds of thouscale sands of households have made the move into their new home over the last year.

“But activity has been so high it has eroded the stock of homes for sale, which has put upward pressure on house prices.

“When this price rise is translated into pounds and pence, it means one in five homes have risen in value by more than the equivalent of a year’s earnings over the space of 12 months.”

Overall, UK house values increased by 10 per cent in the year to May, when the average price was £255,000, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That followed a record high in March of £256,000.

But property prices are definitely rising faster in some places than others.

Sam Beckett, ONS head of economic statistics, said: “Property prices in London are showing the lowest annual growth, with the North-west of England showing the strongest.”