Partly, yes. But it’s multifaceted.
I’d strongly recommend watching the BBC’s ‘Britain’s housing crisis: what went wrong?’.
A very big part of it is the monetisation of property (obviously further enabled by council houses not being readily available). A home should be a right, not an asset. But now people think it’s the norm and a business idea to build their ‘portfolio’ of houses to rent out to people in order to build profit for themselves. Again, a home is a home, not an asset. It is a right to have a roof over your head to keep you warm and safe.
Another aspect is the volume builders only building out their sites by a restricted amount each year. Research has proven that they do this. They release homes like they are diamonds to retain their profit margins. And yet the UK has charged the volume builders with ‘solving’ our housing crisis.
Yet another facet is that pension funds are HEAVILY invested in property in the UK, thus increasing the price of land. This is partly because the birth rate continues to fall, life expectancy continues to rise, and people still expect their pensions. Pension funds companies all over the world (particularly Australia) are investing in UK land, because they have to have a certain investment and there is little that is as certain to increase profits as property.
I could go on but I think this gives a good flavour…