Following daily rises of £151.22 million, retired homeowners now possess houses worth a total of £713.7 billion, according to Prudential.

The largest gains were made by elderly homeowners living in London, with an estimated increase of some £22 billion in property value taking place since May 2006.

Comparatively, pensioners in the north of England saw the smallest rise, with increases of £1.3 billion during the same period of time.

Business director of retirement income at the financial services group Ali Crossley commented: "We were genuinely surprised by just how large the figures were for the increase in property value highlighted by our research."

He added that elderly homeowners may be "astonished" to learn quite how much worth their properties are amassing on an annual basis.

It was recently announced by Norwich Union that almost half of consumers believed that they would need an annual income of some £25,000 to enjoy a comfortable retirement.