Four years ago, fearful of a property crash, David and Maureen Somers sold their house and bought gold. It’s a tactic suddenly popular with those seeking a safe haven for their money.

As safe as houses. This piece of perceived wisdom no longer seems quite so wise as property prices fall and stocks stutter.

But there is one area of the global financial machine that is revving up – gold.

When times are bad, investors have traditionally sought refuge in this precious metal. With bullion dealers reporting a surge in business, it seems history is repeating itself.

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Prices are strong and David Somers is delighted, because he effectively bet his house on it. The retired croupier sold his house in 2004 and invested the proceeds in gold.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“I was worried about the health of the financial markets at that time, I was worried that something like this credit crunch could be on the way,” he says.

“The fact that at the time, only £35,000 of savings in a bank or building society were secure worried me, and I spent a lot of time doing research into what to do. Gold seemed to the best place.”

The 56-year-old had seen his friends suffer badly in the last recession through negative equity, punishing repayments, bankruptcy and repossession.

“I looked at my friends and saw that their prime capital earning years were effectively taken away from them because of the way the system had been working.”

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