With the price of the precious metal reaching all-time highs over the previous few months, BullionByPost figures have revealed a little gold goes a long way, with a record 86% of orders below £2,000 over the last year.
The average order value at BullionByPost is now around £1,400 – less than a 1oz bar or coin – with the top 10 most popular product weights sold all being 1oz or lower.
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The data is based on sales of almost 50 tonnes of gold bars and coins worth £3bn, sent to more than a quarter of a million BullionByPost customers across the UK over the last ten years.
No CGT on bullion
Over the last three months — with renewed global unrest — the gold price has risen more than 17.5%. In April, BullionByPost — which is based in Birmingham and sends gold bars and coins securely through the post to people’s homes — saw record monthly sales of £40m.
The demand has also been fuelled by the increasing ubiquity of physical gold and the fact gold bars are VAT-free and British coins, such as gold Sovereigns, and 1oz gold and silver Britannias, are exempt from Capital Gains Tax.
“Gold bars and coins are no longer the preserve of the wealthy but are instead an increasingly popular investment choice in more modest amounts for many people across the length and breadth of Britain,” said Pete Walden, Managing Director of BullionByPost.
“A little physical gold goes a long way, and by tucking some away in a safe place at home, investors know they have more control and can actually get their hands on it, if need be.”
He added: “While gold has always been a popular investment in times of uncertainty, the current demand has been driven by a perfect storm of global macroeconomic issues and geopolitical uncertainty, combined with inflation and high-interest rates in the UK.
As a precious metal it also holds its value well. For example, a 250g gold bullion bar worth roughly £6,000 a decade ago would now be worth around £15,000.
What types of bullion are available?
BullionByPost’s figures reveal that although some people buy up to £1m worth of gold in one order, a 1oz bar – smaller than a 5cm USB memory stick – or a 1oz gold Britannia coin, are currently the most popular gold purchase, worth roughly £1,900.
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A 1g gold bar — about the size of a mobile phone sim card — is worth about £60 and has seen sales increase 340% in the last four years.
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A 2.5g gold bar, which is a little larger than a sim card, is worth about £170, and has seen sales increase 214%.
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A gold Sovereign, always one of the most popular bullion coins globally and only slightly larger than a one pence coin, has seen sales increase 40%.
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A 20g gold bar, slightly longer than an AAA-size battery, is worth £1,268, and has seen sales increase 265%.
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A 1oz gold Britannia, the most popular 1oz coin for investment — about the size of a 10p piece — is worth £1,850 and saw an increase of 61.53%.
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A 250g gold bar, the size of a credit card, costs about £15,000, and saw sales increase by 75%.
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A 1kg gold bar, which resembles a small smart phone in size, is worth around £60,000.
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For those who have a little more to invest, a traditional 12.5kg bar — made famous by the likes of the Bond film Goldfinger — is worth around £750,000.
Camden has the Midas Touch
Research compiled by BullionByPost also identified the top 50 areas in the UK for sales of gold bars and coins – by analysing the average total number of grams of gold sold, per customer, cumulatively over the last ten years.
It found the highest is in the London borough of Camden, where the average amount of gold sold per customer is 369g — or £22,343. Not surprisingly, six other London boroughs feature in the nation’s top twenty, including Kensington & Chelsea (292g or £17,673), Hammersmith & Fulham (247g or £14,936) and Richmond (239g or £14,474).
While gold has always been seen as an important asset in times of uncertainty — especially since the banking crisis of 2008 — the new analysis indicates its popularity extends beyond affluent parts of the country.
Keep it secret, keep it safe
For those who do not want to store gold at home, BullionByPost offers secure storage facilities using Brink’s. However, for those who do want to keep gold where they can reach it, BullionByPost recommends they be “creative” about where they store it. Either in a safe, or by hiding it somewhere unusual where it cannot be stumbled across by accident.
