The following table shows how property is performing in the various regions within the United Kingdom. Two figures are provided for each region:

The average percentage price change in property values over the past twelve months.

The average annual rental income currently being achieved as a percentage of the current average property value.

Along with shares, property offers the most accessible investment opportunity for individuals to significantly grow their wealth. There are two ways you can potentially benefit by owning a property:

The value of property can increase, providing the opportunity to ultimately sell it for substantially more than you paid for it.

If you decide to let out the property you can also enjoy rental income. A measure commonly used to assess the income potential of a property is gross rental yield, which looks at the annual rental income as a percentage of the current value of the property. For example, if a property provides an annual rental income of £10,000 and the value of the property is £200,000, the gross rental yield is 5%. It should be noted that this is the rate of return before paying any operating costs associated with owning a buy to let property such as insurance, letting agency fees, decorating and maintenance. As a rough rule of thumb, you should reduce the gross rental yield by between 1% and 2% to give a more realistic rate of return you can expect to achieve after expenses.

A mortgage is a loan secured on a property. When you take out such a loan you own the property in its entirety, but the mortgage gives the lender the right to force you to sell the property to repay any outstanding sum should you fail to keep up the payments. There are four broad categories of mortgage commonly available:

With this type of mortgage the interest rate can be varied at the discretion of the lender. Typically, standard variable rates are not linked to the Bank of England base rate, so they can alter even if interest rates generally in the economy remain unchanged. The attraction of such a mortgage is they can usually be repaid at any time without incurring any penalty charges.

The rate payable on a tracker mortgage tracks the movement in a key interest rate - typically the Bank of England base rate. If the rate being tracked goes up, the rate payable on the mortgage goes up; if the rate being tracked goes down, the rate payable on the mortgage goes down. These mortgages are for a fixed term and there can be penalty charges if you try to repay early.

The rate payable on a discount rate mortgage is usually at a fixed percentage discount off the lender's standard variable rate. Like trackers, these mortgages are for a fixed term and there can be penalty charges if you try to repay early.

Fixed rate mortgages, as the name suggests, are subject to a fixed rate of interest for a pre-agreed period of time. To secure such a rate, penalty charges will invariably apply if you try to repay the mortgage early.

Provided below are the average annual mortgage rates currently available for new loans in the United Kingdom, for a variety of loan types:

These are the average rates currently available on new loans. Consequently, with a bit of research, you should be able to find mortgages with rates lower than those shown.