The contents of a typical family home are now worth more than the average property was in 1986.

Financial services group MORE TH@N said the average contents of a home are valued at just under £42,000, while the average property cost slightly less in 1986 at £40,126.

It said the contents of people's houses were now collectively worth £756 billion and had soared by more than 40 per cent since 1994 as the consumer boom led to people spending large sums of money on their homes.

People living in the South-East have the highest valued contents at an average of £48,186, a 58 per cent increase since 1994, while those in the South-West have the lowest value at £31,623, an increase of only 21 per cent.

Steve Kingshott, head of home insurance at MORE TH@N, said: "The figures really show the extent to which the consumer boom has entered our living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms - and even the garden shed, which often has contents worth thousands."

Monday November 10, 2003