Which provided a higher yield in the last decade: Bitcoin or a house in London?

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London’s property market has proved to be one of the best bets for investment over the past 10 years, with a yield of more than 44%, according to a recent market analysis by British estate agency Foxtons.

The estate agent analysed the performance of the UK capital’s residential property market against nine other popular investment options, including Bitcoin and the FTSE 100. It found that only two investment assets have delivered higher returns on investment over the past decade. 

It is hard to beat the breathtaking 4,963% yield Bitcoin has seen in that 10-year period. The cryptocurrency had an average value of $840.3 in December 2013 which swelled to $42,544 in the period up to December 2023. (And marched even higher since, hitting a new all-time high in the middle of March 2024 with one Bitcoin worth more than $73,000.)

Meanwhile, gold – the safe haven investment – takes second place, with a 66.8% return on investment over the same period, priced around $1,223.9 back in 2013 and reaching $2,042 last December. 

The price of silver has increased by a more moderate 22.9% while investing in the FSTE 100 index (tracking the stock price of the 100 biggest companies in the London Stock Exchange) would have seen an even smaller return of 15.7%.

The worst choice proved to be WTI Crude Oil (-26.3%), Brent Crude Oil (-30.2%) and natural gas (-41.5%). 

“The investment landscape is constantly changing and, while some traditional vehicles have seen a sharp decline in value over the last decade, such as natural gas, other emerging markets such as cryptocurrency have experienced a boom period, albeit with a heightened degree of volatility,” Foxtons CEO, Guy Gittins, said.

Is bricks and mortar in London overpriced?

The average value of a London home in December 2013 was £352,028 (€411,237). Today, the average price is £508,037 (€593,486) – an increase of more than £156,000 (€182,238), according to the research which looked at data from the Land Registry. 

“The London market is undoubtedly the pinnacle when it comes to UK property investment and while the last year may have been a challenging one, the value of a London home has still climbed considerably over the last decade,” said Gittins.

The UK estate agency expects the London property market to attract a high level of investment from investors as “it has now turned a corner in 2024”.