Editing Economy of the United Kingdom (section)

====Real estate and renting activities====
{{Main|Real estate in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Trafford Centre (12777554715).jpg|thumb|The [[Trafford Centre]] shopping complex in [[Manchester]] was sold for £1.6&nbsp;billion in 2011 in the largest property sale in British history.<ref name="largest">{{Cite news |title=Capital Shopping Centres seals £1.6bn Trafford Centre deal despite Simon Property Group's concerns |last=Ruddick |first=Graham |quote=Capital Shopping Centres has sealed the UK's largest ever property transaction after 80pc of shareholders backed its £1.6bn acquisition of the Trafford Centre. |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/8284524/Capital-Shopping-Centres-seals-1.6bn-Trafford-Centre-deal-despite-Simon-Property-Groups-concerns.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/8284524/Capital-Shopping-Centres-seals-1.6bn-Trafford-Centre-deal-despite-Simon-Property-Groups-concerns.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=27 January 2011 |access-date=15 September 2011 |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref>]]
Notable real estate companies in the United Kingdom include [[British Land]], [[Landsec]] and the [[Peel Group]]. The UK property market boomed for the seven years up to 2008, and in some areas property trebled in value over that period. The increase in property prices had a number of causes: low interest rates, credit growth, economic growth, rapid growth in buy-to-let [[buy-to-let|property investment]], foreign property investment in London and [[planning restrictions]] on the supply of new housing. 

In England and Wales between 1997 and 2016, average house prices increased by 259%, while earnings increased by 68%. An average home cost 3.6 times annual earnings in 1997 compared to 7.6 in 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/housingaffordabilityinenglandandwales/1997to2016|title=Housing affordability in England and Wales: 1997 to 2016|date=17 March 2017|access-date=14 June 2017|first=Nigel|last=Henretty|website=ONS}}</ref> Rent has nearly doubled as a share of GDP since 1985, and is now larger than the manufacturing sector. In 2014, rent and [[imputed rent]] – an estimate of how much home-owners would pay if they rented their home – accounted for 12.3% of GDP.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neweconomics.org/press/entry/gdp-boosted-by-158bn-of-phantom-rent-nef-research-reveals|title=GDP boosted by £158bn of 'phantom rent'|publisher=New Economics Foundation|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420012102/http://www.neweconomics.org/press/entry/gdp-boosted-by-158bn-of-phantom-rent-nef-research-reveals|archive-date=20 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>