Real Estate Nation

No doubt you’ve already seen the rather extraordinary figures on the number of people who now work in real estate in the UK.

Well the chart above shows you how the real estate sector has fared in terms of gross value added (a measure of economic activity) since the start of the crisis. Compare its performance with the construction and manufacturing sectors – and with the overall economy’s growth since 2008.

The overall economy is still 3.3% smaller than it was at the start of the crisis. The construction sector is a whopping 15% smaller. The UK real estate sector is now 8.3% bigger than it was at the start of the crisis. That’s quite a disparity.

Figures are all from the latest ONS National Accounts figures.