The value of the housing stock at the end of 2011 is estimated at £3.9 trillion, up from £2.1 trillion in 2001.

The increase of £1.8 trillion over the decade is equivalent to £68,500 per household – in the owner-occupied and private rented sectors – in the UK. The value of the UK private residential housing stock has grown at more than twice the rate of any increase in overall consumer prices, with the retail price index up by 38% over the past ten years.

However Halifax says the picture changes when looking at the value of housing stock since 2007. Over the past five years the value of the UK’s housing stock has declined by 5%, or £187 billion.

This reflects the reduction in house prices since autumn 2007: a decline Halifax says is more than compensated for by the significant increases in the half decade prior to 2007.

All 12 regions of the UK have seen a significant increase in the value of their private housing stock during the last ten years.

Although the Index, which tracks the performance of the world’s leading luxury residential markets, rose by 3% during 2011, the second half of the year saw the pace of growth slow considerably.

The luxury housing market is now seeing the pace of price growth slip for the second time since the 2008/09 global financial crisis. In this latest cycle annual price growth peaked at 11.5% in Q2 2010 but has since slowed each quarter.

Post the Lehman collapse European and North American cities were largely responsible for the index’s slump. Since late 2010 it has been the Asian cities which have dampened price inflation. In Q2 2010 prices in Asia Pacific were rising at an average rate of 23.6% each year, the comparable figure now stands at -1%.

Anti-inflationary price cooling measures implemented by Asian governments, combined with worries that the euro zone sovereign debt crisis will affect the global economy, have created a more cautionary climate.

The slowdown in the luxury Asian markets has highlighted the extent to which the “old-world” cities of London, New York and Moscow are outperforming the overall index. London and Moscow have ranked highly for several quarters but Manhattan’s recovery is gathering momentum. Foreign demand for New York’s luxury homes is not only strengthening, but is also starting to diversify with Chinese nationals increasingly evident, particularly in the US $1-$3million sector.

The properties most vulnerable to fraud are usually empty, tenanted or mortgage-free.

Individuals at a higher risk of fraud include owners who are absent for whatever reason; for example because the owner may live abroad, buy to let landlords, the elderly not living in their properties because they may be in long-term hospital or residential care, and where a relationship has broken down.

Here, Land Registry offers some top tips to help owners protect their property from fraudsters:

* First of all make sure your property is registered. If you become an innocent victim of fraud and suffer a financial loss as a consequence, you will be compensated;
* Once registered make sure your contact details are up-to-date you can be reached easily;
* You can have up to three addresses on the register; email addresses or an address abroad can be used. The more information you provide, the more chance Land Registry has of reaching you if needed;
* Owners who feel their property might be at risk can have a restriction entered on their property which is designed to help prevent forgery by requiring a solicitor or conveyancer to certify they are satisfied that the person selling or mortgaging the property is the true owner.

From 1 February 2012, there is no Land Registry fee for home owners to register this restriction, as long as they do not live in the property they wish to protect. Owner occupiers will continue to pay a small fee.

James Pullan, head of student property, Knight Frank, said: “Limited supply coupled with rising global interest in the UK’s educational excellence points towards further strong rental growth in the sector.

“The growth in the capital has been fuelled by the particularly robust performance of the core market, and more specifically, accommodation with rents of less than £220 a week. This is also the rent bracket where rooms were filled most quickly, signalling a strong depth of demand.”

Returns in the regions moderated from 14.6% in September 2010 to 10.5% in September 2011. Outside London, Pullan said investment in towns which had more than one university with a high density of students could be most lucrative.

As Knight Frank predicted last year, average rents in London rose in September, climbing to £14,313, up 9% from £13,121 last academic year. This trend coupled with the increase in Capital Values helped push total returns higher.

The average rent paid by students in the regions is much lower at £5989, but that is still up 4% from September last year.

According to Valbury Capital, the price of gold will continue to be driven by fears over sovereign debt default, the solvency of the banking system and the threat of global recession, which means gold will remain an attractive option.

With the possibility of a US and global recession getting closer and the impetus in early 2012 for people to search for safe havens, gold just might be the one that suits the most.

Over the last five years prices have risen from US $650 /troy Oz. to around US $1650, a steady gain of over 250%, without ever seemingly to over stretch or show signs of running out of support. And investors who have the patience and fortitude to hold gold since it hit a US $257 low in January 2001 have been richly rewarded with a five-fold increase in their investment.

The last time there was a sharper decrease in the annual inflation index was between November and December 2008.

The annual rate of inflation excluding the impact of indirect tax changes, such as VAT, was 2.8% for the year to December, down from 3.4% in November.

In January 2012 the effect of the January 2011 2.5 percentage point VAT hike will drop out of the year-on-year comparisons.

Sales of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars – now owned by BMW – surged 31% in 2011 to 3538 cars.

That figure is the highest number of vehicles sold any year in the company’s history, which stretches back more than a century.

Growth was less than the astonishing 150% recorded in 2010 but no less a phenomenal achievement considering the global economic pressures.

Its new £165,000 Ghost model is key to the marque’s current succes and a major driving force behind its sales growth.

Chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos said: “We had an outstanding year in 2011 and we should take a moment to reflect on this Great British success story.”