If Labour get in, will house prices fall?

[DontCheetoTheCheetah]

Well will they?

Because they have unrealistic expectations (I'm not old myself). Many people want their first property to be a 3 bed detached house in a prime location - you only have to read threads on here and the property boards to see what people are looking for. Gone are the days of buying a bedsit/one bed and sticking to what you can afford. We appear to have moved into a society of over reaching then complaining when it all gets a bit too much.

What would be helpful is if interest rates could fall which would make borrowing more affordable for people but whenever that happens house prices go up.

Agree with this. We are in our 50s and bought our first house nearly 30 years ago. House was much cheaper in terms of ratio to salary than would be now but the interest rate on our mortgage was more than double what it would be now

It would be nice if they did but unlikely unless they throw us into a huge recession.
House prices will never fall in the SE because the population grows and there is insufficient supply.
Cheaper areas to live have more stable house prices already.

Single people are not all young! The newly divorced for example. Also my aged parents have just 'downsized' from a 3 bed to a 4 bed because they wanted to stay in the same town and there was so little on the market.

Actually will concede you are right here on expectations. We had some young couples look round our house and honestly it was like they’d not settle for anything less than a castle with a moat round it. They were mostly in tiny rentals and were in a position to buy a family home, but no, grass is always greener.

That said, we are still short of a few millions homes.

Definitely not.

Immigration is likely to increase under Labour and so pressure on housing will be greater.

Very slowly

I think there is such intense pressure on housing that prices won't fall.

I think that what could become a bigger issue is trying to find a private rental. I have a relative currently looking for one (as current landlord wants to sell and has given notice). But there is absolutely nothing to rent near work.

I think clamping down or taxing the hell out of BTL or whatever will have unexpected consequences.

No. Supply and demand.

Unlikely nationwide, if you live in an area where a significant number of properties are Airbnb /holiday homes/second homes, then possibly, but any restrictions on holiday lets/second homes won’t have a significant overall effect.

Once the boomer generation are gone our population levels decline rapidly.

Will they? Looking at population statistics I don't think that's a foregone conclusion.

Besides, the UK will just keep importing more people to replace them.

You don't. Countries go in and out of recession regularly. It just happens its been a few years since the UK had one.

They have already fallen in parts haven’t they? Particularly when taking inflation into account. Whoever is in house prices are not going to have big lifts over the next few years unless our economy somehow turns around.

Oops, it was meant to quote, I meant nobody seems to know how to shake off a recession once and for all, if they did I hope they would have already! But regarding house prices and anything else that may happen in the future, I guess nobody knows either 😉

How could anyone know that,OP?

How do you shake off a recession once and for all?

we never really recovered from the 08 recession just masked it with low rates.

If Conservatives continue then fewer people will afford to have children and to buy so could lead to falls in 30 years time. Plus more likely to be a recession due to money continuing to flow out the country to tax havens.

Birth rates are already low & have fallen far faster than predicted. There are big issues in schools due to the funding model and lack of pupils in parts.

The obsession with high house prices in this country is ludicrous. Logically if prices go down a bit, so will the cost of your next purchase.

It’s crazy, people should be far more concerned about low wages.

These issues are not "Tory" issues though. They are happening in all countries regardless of who is in power. Too many people, not enough housing. Basic supply and demand.

I expect house prices to stagnate in nominal terms as they are now so unaffordable that the ‘housing ladder’ has gone

yes, the concept of a ladder is outdated for most.

And no government will be tough on immigration because of the ageing population issue.

I’m pretty sure London has been the weakest market for growth for a good few yrs because it isn’t just supply and demand, affordability matters. Other cities and cheaper areas will see more growth as people are pushed to other areas, more hybrid working etc.

Building more houses won't fix the problem. Encouraging businesses into areas outside of the south east and spreading the housing crisis round the country and out of (not just south east) cities will.

True. It's absurd that there is such a massive variation in house prices and rents between regions. It's causing real problems for recruitment in the SE in occupations like teaching and nursing, where pay scales are the same for everywhere outside of London, but rents and house prices are so much higher.

They may do something about Air BnB - though as a family we prefer these to hotels - as you don't get hotel suits in UK really but can see they make many tourist places housing situation worse.

The house problem is rising population and lack of supply going back decades.

The natural population is predicted to go into reverse as soon as next year more deaths than birth is expected but immigration likely lead to increase population for decades and at same time we need more workers to pay tax to fund aging population.

On top of that is under occupation - due to divorces aging population and lack of suitable and preferable housing to move to. But building more in area where demand is high is increasing difficult as services in those areas are already under strain. Increased density of housing - but poor build quality and people in UK preferring houses makes that hard.

Rent controls being their own issues and rental market has huge problems.

Labour are making noises about building more but so have previous governments and once you start to try you run into local opposition and need to also build up local services - which takes more money and actually getting the developers to build type of housing stock needed not what makes most money.

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Plus as PP have said it's not just a UK issue - Ireland, Australia, USA - various European countries also have high housing cost and housing problems.

Let me get my crystal ball out....

Labour and the Conservatives are basically identical. We will just swap one set of incompetents for another. They are both Blairite. The have both overseen policies that have resulted in massive house price growth. Arguably this government’s policies are to the left of Blair. We have the highest taxation since WW2 and the highest peacetime taxation in our history. We have higher corporation tax than the high tax Nordic countries. Wealth, business investment and employment opportunities are leaving daily and there is no party willing to reverse it.

We have the highest taxation since WW2 and the highest peacetime taxation in our history. We have higher corporation tax than the high tax Nordic countries.

And yet look at salaries or the services we get for that tax. Tax is far too weighted on PAYE imo.