273% rise in property prices

The average UK house price has grown by 273% over the last 50 years.

According to research carried out by the country's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, the average home in 1959 cost £2,507 compared to to £162,085 last year.

The research revealed that prices increased the most steeply during the 2000s, rocketing by 62%. on average. The worst performing decade was the 1990s when prices fell by 22%.

The most rapid average property price rises were witnessed in four periods: 1971-73, 1977-80, 1985-89 and 1998-2007. Each short-lived boom period was followed by falls in real house prices (allowing for inflation).

Owner-occupation increased steadily over the period, although it has declined slightly in the last two years. 43% of people owned their own homes in 1961, compared to 68% in 2008. The Right-to-Buy scheme for council house tenants introduced in the eighties by the Thatcher Government is attributed with much of the increase.

The proportion of homes which were privately rented fell from 33% in 1961 to just 9% in 1991, although with the introduction of buy-to-let mortgages around that time the private rental sector has seen strong growth since, accounting for 14% of housing in 2008.

The size of the socially rented sector in 2008 at 18% was smaller than in 1961 at 25% as a sharp reduction in local authority house building and the sale of council houses contributed to the sector's contraction since the early 1980s.

The North/South house price divide has widened significantly since 1969, with prices rising much faster in the South. The average percentage difference between the highest and lowest priced UK region has increased from 84% in 1959 to 104% in 2009.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said all the developments in the UK housing market over the last 50 years were remarkable. He added: "No doubt, there will be further dramatic changes over the coming years, most likely including ways that we are currently unable to foresee."