Clients need to earn more than £100,000 ($196,174) a year to be considered high net worth, according to brokers polled by theRoyal Bank of Scotland, reports FTAdviser.

Research, conducted among 1723 advisors in April, showed that six out of 10 believed a client could only be "high net-worth" if he earned in excess of £100,000.

In a further sign of house price inflation, one in 10 brokers said loans of more than £500,000 accounted for exactly a quarter of their total business. Of those polled, more than one-third saw an increase in the number of loans of more than £500,000 over the past three years.