"The super-rich are pushing workers out of the capital"

Link to Evening Standard

"London prices have exploded because London has become the world’s most desirable city, because there are more rich people now than ever before able to come here, and because the UK is seen as a place which is stable, so their money is safe.

"But the effect is to detach London not just from the rest of the UK, but from Londoners themselves. ... The inner oval of central London is rapidly becoming a place where we are still allowed to work but no longer able to live.

"... People displaced in [expensive] areas in turn try a bit further out in their turn and the ripple of rising prices spreads ever wider. The result is that prices rise in parts of London an oligarch does not even know exist.

"Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, house prices have been falling. ... We can’t go on like this."

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Link to web site

The Guardian:
"Buy-to-let landlords' buying spree will keep more families in rental trap"

"Buy-to-let landlords will embark on a home buying spree in 2013 while young adults and families remain trapped in rental properties, according to a forecast by Britain's biggest property website Rightmove. ... Meanwhile, 53% of tenants say they are trapped in renting, wanting to buy a home, but unable to afford to do so.

"The research is published as a committee of MPs begins a formal investigation into the problems facing Britain's 'Generation Rent'.

"... Campaigners at Priced Out, a group representing tenants unable to afford to buy, said without new building, landlords are simply displacing first-time buyers."

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Link to web site

Daily Telegraph:
"Rising house prices depress rental yields, but will not kill buy-to-let"

"Rising house prices, the mortgage famine and increasing numbers of ‘accidental landlords’ look set to cause a modest reduction in rental yields.

"... Unhappy tenants and others hoping for a house price crash may detect a top of the market aspect to this admittedly stale bull story. It would be easy to stroke one’s chin sagely and point out that today’s feast can cause tomorrow’s famine.

"But sceptics have been predicting the top of the buy-to-let market all the way up. Rental property remains an attractive source of income for many people entering retirement at a time of historic low interest rates, bond yields near all-time lows, and high share price volatility."