Of course practically every area where supply fails to keep up with demand – homes, GP appointments and so on – is heavily centralised and, practically speaking, controlled by the state. That the Government can’t overhaul the UK’s rigid and complex planning system is the fault of politicians, not migrants.
But even taking net migration out of the mix altogether, the Tories’ (now scrapped) housebuilding targets were still too low to meet demand. The UK has fallen so far behind on building over the past few decades, we are now in a position where a million new homes were needed yesterday.
I’m usually loath to jinx good news – but near-record high house prices are not the “good news” many have made them out to be. What some might call a “crash” would be more likely to reflect a market correction, which would still see house prices far beyond the median-salaried worker’s comfortable reach.
And that’s if prices drop. In January 2020, the average house price was £231,000; after everything the UK economy has been through, it’s now £291,000. Anyone who thinks this will change for the better without major policy reform (or a spectacular, unknown economic event) is kidding themselves. Even a temporary fall would likely correct itself in a matter of years.
The continued rise in prices, and the lack of any correction, are signs that the housing market is nothing like a market, but instead a rigged system in which those who already own homes will always be well ahead in the game – until politicians are brave enough to shake up the rules.
