The ups and downs of house prices and their implications for the value of transactions and volume of residential conveyancing in the past 50 years can be seen in a survey conducted by estate agent Savills for The Times.

The best year since 1953 in which to have bought a home that you still own was 1996. Taking account of inflation, homeowners who bought then have seen annual gains of 6.2% in real terms.

The worst year to date was 2007 with property prices falling 9% since then.

Without taking inflation into account, the most profitable time to buy was 1970 with growth in the following 40 years averaging 10.1% but high inflation throughout the Seventies eroded some of those gains.

Where in the UK you live also makes a difference to the profit from property, according to the report.

In terms of price growth alone, the best time to buy in the south east of England, including London and Brighton, was the mid-1990s but further north price growth has lagged, with the optimum time to buy having been around 2000.

Overall, anyone who is a home-owner and has gone through the process of finding, financing and conveyancing to buy their own property can be reassured that housing market profit and loss balances out the longer you keep it.