What would you grab first if your home caught fire? Property news roundup

Plus, student rents down, Britain's property wealth, and footballers vs homes

Assuming family and pets were safe, what would you try to save if your home was struck by fire or flooding?

A new study of 2,300 people by insurer Ecclesiastical show that while 11 per cent of men would make rescuing family photographs their main priority, nearly three times as many women would put photos top of their list of possessions to save.

Instead, men chose important documents (24 per cent) followed by tech items such as laptops and phones (22 per cent). Only 12 per cent of women said technology items were their top priority.

Average student rents down

Figures from Accommodationforstudents.com (AFS) suggest the average weekly student rent in the UK now averages £79.27, down 37p from 2013.

Unsurprisingly, London is still the most expensive location for student accommodation at an average of £136 per week per room, up five per cent on last year, followed by Kingston (up eight per cent to £108) and Winchester (up six per cent to £107).

Each with an average of £80, Bournemouth and Luton experienced the biggest year-on-year drop in average weekly rent, down 11 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

"There is more choice in student accommodation than ever before," said Simon Thompson, Director of Accommodation for Students, "from the basic bedroom with a bed and desk to purpose built blocks offering on-site gyms, launderettes and games rooms. Although figures suggest there is a widening gap in the student rental market, factors such as the facilities on offer and whether bills are included or not, have to be taken into account. Budgeting can be a major stumbling block for young people who have just left home for the first time, so it is encouraging to see that 'bills inclusive' accommodation is on the rise."

Meanwhile research by MoneySuperMarket shows that the cheapest home contents insurance at the UK's leading 20 universities is to be found at St Andrews (£85 a year). Cambridge has the cheapest campus accommodation at £100 a week.

What is Britain's property wealth?

London has more than a third of Britain’s gross property value, according to research by estate agents Stirling Ackroyd, with its homes worth a total of £1.5 trillion. The value of every home in the rest of England is £2.24 trillion

By 2017, the report estimates that London homes will be worth £2.1 trillion. In 1987 London homes were worth £273 billion, around 27 per cent of all property wealth.

The figures show that property in three East End boroughs - Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Southwark - is worth more than all the homes in Wales. All together these boroughs have homes worth £170 billion, five per cent more than Wales’ £162 billion.

Premier league players or homes?

If football clubs had chosen to spend their money on housing rather than big name signings at the start of the season, what could they have bought? Online estate agent eMoov.co.uk estimates that Luis Suarez's transfer is equal to the total development budget of Bishop Gate in Coventry where more than 400 new homes are being built .

Meanwhile Alexis Sanchez's £35 million move to Arsenal is around the same as Greenlakes Rise, a new 170 home development in Bedford. Elsewhere, Diego Costa (£30 million) would get you 300 new homes in a development in Stafford, while the fee for Romelu Lukaku (£28 million) is the same as 160 eco-homes being built in Trent Basin, Nottingham.