More bad news, house prices rise.
This morning the news is that house prices are rising on average across the UK at 10.9%, on average mind you, that means in some hotspots they are rising far faster. Tax cuts on property by the Chancellor were one factor but according to the Nationwide a “race for space” has seen families dashing to get somewhere they can live and work from home. So the government has once again thrown petrol onto a fire and set up all the necessary components of a crash.
I have been around long enough to see this happen many times, all we are doing is throwing free, tax payer provided money, at property owners. They will make a fortune, or more precisely their children will inherit a fortune while home ownership shrinks and the country fails to build enough homes. The sensible thing to do would have been to spend the money wasted on stamp duty holidays and subsidised mortgages actually building houses.
But that doesn’t get you the cheap headlines, the grateful thanks of the older home owning voter or the casino economics that make everybody feel rich, for a while.
High house prices are bad news not good.
https://jonty.substack.com/