GOOD NEWS ON HOUSE PRICES: "House prices in Tower Hamlets jump 43 per cent in just one year"

Link to Evening Standard

The 10 London boroughs with the biggest house price hikes:

1. Tower Hamlets: 43.1 per cent, to £620,131
2. Croydon: 26.4 per cent, to £384,900
3. Wandsworth:  26.4 per cent, to £908,175
4. Kingston-upon-Thames: 25.8 per cent, to £851,634
5. Newham: 23.4 per cent, to £305,193
6. Merton: 23 per cent, to £591,671
7. Ealing: 21.6 per cent, to £604,316
8. Hackney: 21.6 per cent, to £731,346
9. Hounslow: 21.4 per cent, to £655,178
10. Lambeth: 20.1 per cent, to £635,505

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The Guardian:
"UK property prices have made us millionaires – but damaged democracy"

"One in 10 of UK adults is now a millionaire, thanks mostly to soaring house values. The main political parties can't help but cater to property owners, so who will represent the rest?

"... [In the 1960s,] half the population rented, with their income rather than their assets dictating the level of financial security they felt. At present, property ownership may be in decline. But only a third of the population now rent. And half of those are renting from the two-thirds who own.

"What this means, politically, is that members of Thatcher's property-owning democracy outnumber everyone else by two to one. For many of us, the value of our assets is just as important to our concept of ourselves as financially secure as is the size of our incomes, if not more so, because for some time now, generally speaking, our houses have been earning more than we do. The total wealth in private hands in this country in the years from 2010-2012 was £9.5tn – more than six times the value of all goods and services produced in the country every year.

"Any British political party that doesn't put the needs of property owners first risks alienating the majority. That's why Labour targets not the poor, but the 'squeezed middle'. It might be nice to believe that the last time Britain ousted the Conservatives, it was because we were appalled by the ravages of de-industrialisation and privatisation. But a lot of people – the 'squeezed middle' – were probably just sick of high interest rates and declining property prices.

"Any party that presides over low interest rates and rising property prices will now achieve good poll ratings. No wonder politicians have, for decades now, been calling for a house-building boom to tackle the supply problem, while remaining privately relieved that it never really quite seems to take off."