Good News on House Prices: Evening Standard: "Housebuilders call time on six years of pain as prices jump"

Link to web site

"Comment: Welcome news — but will it last?"

"In the short term, the Chancellor’s roll of the dice in this year’s Budget on jump-starting the housing market is paying dividends. Coming after the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending — which had already cut mortgage costs — the Help to Buy scheme has dramatically thawed lending. Anybody holding housebuilding shares since the start of the year, meanwhile, has made a killing.

"A livelier property market —particularly if first-time buyers are coming in — is good for the wider economy and consumer confidence. And after the five years we’ve just had, maybe any growth is good growth.

"But there are worries about the bigger picture. What happens when the state subsidy comes to an end? Will we be left with a new generation of borrowers saddled with huge mortgage debts? And shouldn’t we be striving for a new economic model that isn’t so obsessed with property? As Tullett Prebon chief executive Terry Smith once put it, you can’t export a house."