The social and financial aspects of real estate are inextricably linked. The surge of overseas money into London’s residential market has had a dramatic impact. House prices have risen significantly, making the residential market an increasingly appealing investment and as a result many property developments have been driven further out of Central London. This has in turn attracted a large amount of global interest, pushing prices up further.

These days almost any newsworthy statistics seem to be bandied about in billions: Greek debt, National Health Service budget, the cost of new aircraft carriers and the like. But actually how much is a billion pounds? Can we imagine it? A million pounds stacked in £20 notes is 5.56 metres high, about the same as a London Routemaster bus. Therefore a billion pounds similarly stacked would be 5,650 metres high, i.e. 1,000 buses. And 83 billion pounds so stacked would be about 480 kilometres high.