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UK property market - what will the Bank of England do next?
The market is hard-wired for above-inflation increases in house prices but the Bank has enough weapons to rein in the market. More homes have been built in Doncaster and Barnsley in the past five years than in Oxford and Cambridge. Surrey has more acreage devoted to golf courses than it does to housing. Two facts that explain a lot about the UK property market. Put simply, it is a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. The irresistible force is demand for real estate, driven by population growth, foreign cash, the sense that property is a better long-term investment than any of the alternatives, ... (full story)