That, at least, is one fair conclusion we might draw from the sort of fascinating data relayed in this study of how the super-rich few disport their conspicuous wealth for the envious delectation of envious passers-by.

It’s a syndrome well-known in white hot bastions of flashy prestige such as Knightsbridge or Chelsea, where even a relatively “ordinary” automobile costs the equivalent of a less well-heeled citizen’s annual wage - and Henley-on-Thames is surely in that same flash-your-cash glitzy league.

Yet while New Money taunts the normal world with its gaudy trappings it seems the staid old ways of the traditional set still prevail at the Regatta, where club blazers, old school ties and other symbols of the established societal elite - not all of whom have very much money - are the true definition of England’s own unique take on the caste system.

However whether it is the evocation of Del-boy loot garnered by shiny-trousered arrivistes in the city, or the established wealth of genuine toffs, the whole ritzy carnival blends seamlessly together in an exuberant expression of Plenty which - and this is the interesting part - seems to be pushing house prices ever upwards.

Home values in Henley have soared 58 per cent in the last five years, while just under a third sell for over half a million pounds, and the net result has been the creation of a luxury marina-style enclave in which keeping up with the Jones is relatively easy ... if you have the wherewithal for a top of the range vehicle to exhibit to those gawping multitudes from, sadly for them, less salubrious towns.

Many actually believe, and possibly with good reason, that a scattering of shiny limos on your expanse of well-tended gravel can really raise the price of your house – and since Henley is hardly an ideal commuter dormitory for London that’s possibly as plausible an explanation as any for the persistent increase in values.

Fabulous although the “richest” households may be, it isn’t automatically obvious just how wealthy even the most sought-after locale really is, because of course the English - apart from the more exuberant Essex Men, perhaps - tend not to throw good taste to the winds in the manner of our sometimes less sophisticated transatlantic cousins ... Las Vegas, mercifully, we are not.

So if someone is taking the kids to school in a BMW M6 - or even an X6 - it can be a reassuring sign that the home owner is, at heart, “one of us”, and that the prestige rating of the bricks and mortar is in tune with one’s own moneyed but tasteful aspirational ambitions.

By contrast an otherwise splendid pied-a-terre with a Reliant Robin parked outside is going to ring alarm bells. You don’t have to be a snob to look askance at the sort of neighbours who, for all one knows, might be breeding ferrets as a hobby.

The logic of the argument is amply made clear on the Carmony site, where a search for cars in a posh neighbourhood such as Henley, Sevenoaks, Ascot or Beaconsfield can be instructive.

It seems the true value of a home isn’t rooted in luxuries such as indoor swimming pools or even stables, but in the overall image a town projects - which in turn (quite possibly) is helped along no end by the sort of cars its citizens can afford to drive.

Meanwhile that celebrated Regatta, which at bottom is a boat race - one of many - has a special allure no amount of estate agent’s sophistry can possibly hope to emulate.

Of course the locals wouldn’t set much store on this august social happening being connected in any meaningful way with the acquisition of anything so vulgar as hard cash - which, tragically, cannot by itself purchase that elusive quality we call “class”.

But, as Del Boy himself would be the first to admit, what’s not to like if it adds 20 per cent or so to your house value?