From the 16 October 2017, the old £1 coin will no longer be accepted as legal tender. As a result, it’s being reported that £450 million has been lost.
But what does this equate to in property terms?
Even in a market as expensive as the UK, home buyers could have clubbed together with their old £1 coins and put down a ten per cent mortgage on 19,895 properties, or bought 1,990 properties outright at the current UK average of £226,185 – according to new research by eMoov.
In the North East, it could have stretched to 33,835 mortgages or 3,383 properties. With the average house price in Scotland of £149,185, 30,164 mortgages could have been secured or 3,016 homes could have been bought.
The much higher price of property in London means just 9,208 mortgage applications could have been made or 921 properties could have been bought for the £450m, although this falls to just 323 in London’s most prestigious borough – Kensington and Chelsea.
In the capital’s most affordable borough, Barking and Dagenham, the missing pound coins would have meant an additional 15,530 mortgage applications or 1,553 homes bought.
In the second most affordable borough, Bexley, with an average house price of £344,830, 1,305 homes could have been bought or 13,050 mortgages could have been secured.
In Bristol, the £450m pot would have secured 1650 properties outright or 16,503 mortgages. In Birmingham, it would have stretched to 25,656 mortgages with a 10 per cent deposit or 2,566 homes. In Liverpool, it would have stretched even further to 35,301 mortgages or 3,530 homes.
