Many would say that house prices have had their inflation bubble and more, and that the rest of the economy, and salaries, are on a much-delayed catch-up. If pay doesn’t stack up to cover mortgage payments, there’s no way prices can go up and up for ever. There has to be a bottom end, habitable houses which first-time buyers can actually afford, to support the top-end. And by ‘top-end’, I’m not talking zillionaire’s row, they’ll always, unless we tax them more, be able to keep buying. No, it’s the 5 bed detached, whose buyer moves from the 2 or 3 bed semi which they bought having sold their first flat. Real life, in other words, which never really goes away and outlives all the agents’ hype. In the end.
“John Lewis foray into BTR could result in losses of £57m”
I did predict a while ago that Waitrose Homes rather than Waitrose Home Deliveries could be the future. John Lewis were probably the most benign big business to decide to go into the housing rental market, a move which could swing things away from the unpredictability of the mass of private landlords who dominate the sector.
