Hidden Treasure

At £14bn the value of unspent paper £20 and £50 notes equates to the equivalent of over 50,000 average priced homes.

After the 30th September 2022 paper £20 and £50 notes will no longer be legal tender in the UK. At the last count the Bank of England estimated there were over 460 million unspent paper notes, over £6bn unspent in £20s and £8bn in £50s.

Each month around 28% of all sales in England and Wales are cash purchases. In 2021, cash sales account for more than 1 in 3 property purchases in the South West and less than 1 in five in London.

The average price of a property purchased with cash is, on average, 8%-9% less than the average price of a property purchased with a mortgage. Source: Dataloft, Nationwide, UKHPI, Bank of England

**This week there are two versions of the infographic to chose from. One focuses on unspent notes and number of home it could buy and the other on the proportion of homes purchased with cash. Check the Infographic library**

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