What worries me is the effect on the market/society of people buying in a rising market with high LTV - small deposit, big mortgage.
This 'locks' the selling prices high - there's no flexibility for these peole to sell at a lower price.
The nearer the top of the market/higher the price you buy - the more vulnerable you are to any instability in the market - the higher your future selling price s locked.
Of course, we haven't had job instability in the south east in a good while, so people are feeling confident about repayment ability, especially with low interest rates.
But if the market shifts at all downwards, if the FTBs(investors) or overseas buyers dry up - then we would probably get stagnation rather than falls - as long as the job market is buoyant.
When you realise that you can never afford the next step up house in your local area, something's wrong.
That your income will never rise enough to allow you to borrow enough more money because the gap in price from 1 to 2 bed or 2 to 3 bed etc is so huge.
People can't just keep moving further 'out' to get a bigger house.
Because the original people who were already living 'out' have to play their part in that game by dying or moving even further 'out' themselves.
Eventually there is no further 'out',