The value of homes in London is now almost double that of all the homes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to the Halifax.
The mortgage lender put a price tag of £1.13tn on property in the capital, compared with £582bn in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The huge increase in the value of homes in London also means that the city’s residential property is now worth the same as every property in the north-west, Yorkshire, Humberside, the north-east and Scotland combined. The housing stock in the north of England - from Cheshire to Northumberland - is valued at £810bn.
The Halifax report shows the estimated total value of the UK’s private housing stock has past the £5tn barrier for the first time. But the figures mask a vast north-south divide.
The value of housing in the north has increased by 36% during the last 10 years. At the same time property prices in the south have soared by 66%. As a result, the south’s share of total UK housing assets rose from 56% in 2005 to 61% in 2015.
Despite higher mortgages in the south, the average homeowner in London enjoys net equity – the value of the house after the mortgage is deducted – of £306,000, compared with £94,000 in the north-east and £82,000 in Northern Ireland.
On paper, the British are much wealthier than they were 10 years ago, with the net value of houses rising from £3.3tn in 2005 to £5.1tn today.
The increase of £1.8tn is equivalent to £76,316 per household, said Halifax, although it did not break down the extent to which the winners have been private landlords.
Owner-occupation in Britain has been in steep decline since lenders began offering buy-to-let mortgages, falling from a peak of 70% in 2005 to below 65% this year.
The figures also underline how much more house prices have risen than inflation and earnings, up 53% over the past decade compared with the 35% rise in the CPI measure of inflation.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics reveals how the British regard housing as the best long-term investment, far outstripping their confidence in stockmarket returns.
It found that 44% of people believe that property will make them the most money in life, compared to under 10% who said the stockmarket was the route to riches.
The most recent house price data from Halifax shows that the average property in Britain is now £205,000, up 9.7% over the past year.
