UK house price inflation climbs to over 10%

Maybe there is such a shortage of housing that we don't need first time buyers to support the market?

With 870,000 empty homes in the UK there is no shortage of housing in the UK. The reason mortage lending is down is due to the banks not wanting to lend and making their loan criteria much more stringent.

As soon as interest rates get back to 5% the whole pack of cards will come tumbling down...

If the market does not require first time buyers to support it, how do the so-called first time buyers house themselves??

Or, to look at it another way... perhaps couples should be stopped from breeding altogether. Seems our economy doesn't need another generation of humans to support it if this assertion is correct!!!

The cards will eventually fall just a question of when and what triggers the fall. England is one of the few countries in the world I have lived in where making a six figure income (in Sterling) just allows you to rent a two bed flat in Surrey. Something has to give when you need a £200,000 for a downpayment on a three bed house in Surrey. This cannot last forever when the average income is £35,000 in Guildford. You either inherit the money, have equity in property, make £150K + or year or win a Lotto jackpot to own a house in Surrey. I would expect only 5% of the population have this. I would expect this will apply to most areas in the UK.

Agree Nigel. The problem with the low interest rates and the "quantative easing" was that it did not allow the housing market to come back far enough to make houses actually affordable. In other words there was not sufficiently long or deep a recession to adjust for the years of excess. As a result even those who can "afford" to buy are, in the main, taking out huge mortgages that they have no hope of ever repaying. The economics of the madhouse comes to mind

House prices will always go up over the long term

we live on an island and we are not building houses and the british have a love affair with property

Just watch cable TV and see the programs

Im glad i have a lot of property and i have invested over a long time and i will hold onto my property for the rest of my life

if i had taken the advice of Finacial advisers and banks and stock brokers I would be still working 9 til 5 till the age of 75

no I think im sticking with property unless someone else can show me an alternitive

i would be intrrested to have the views of so called experts

I hope plenty of people "stick with property" - we need lots of people to lose big time if we are to pay for the mess.

The reason house prices are so high in the UK is a combination of 3 factors that can be directly laid at the door of the Labour Govt.

1.Browns ill thought through assault on taxing pension dividends plus some unrealistic regulations all of which led to the collapse of company schemes and hence the growth of private landlords trying to rescue their retirement.

2.A huge increase in immigration (2 million plus) all needing housing.

3.Central Govt control on Local Authorities house building expenditure.

The issue of house price inflation is not rocket science but base on the simplest law of economics-DEMAND exceeds SUPPLY = PRICE RISES

chris what sour grapes maybe envey

Apart from the first sentence, Dyslecksic Lanlord is right. Try and imagine property going up at just 5% per year for ever more. Wages going up about 2% for evermore. The two will become so diverse that the median person wouldn't have a home to live in, rented or bought. We all know that situation would lead to massive change, possibly even revolution. At the very least a very left wing government in place, voted in by those very people without a home. That would stuff property as an investment. Far better to have realistic growth even for people with lots of property.