After years in the doldrums, the reinvigorated housing market continues apace. With a stamp duty stampede attributed to rising prices in London, the south east and the east of England, the boom shows no signs of petering out. According to the Office for National Statistics, house prices nationally rose by 7.9 per cent in the year to January. That lifts the average price of a home to £292,000, although surveys from estate agents have suggested that the real figure could be even higher.
Houseowners in England are reaping the biggest rewards, the figures suggest. Prices rose by 8.6 per cent in England in the year to the end of January, the ONS said, while property prices went up by 0.1 per cent in Scotland and 0.8 per cent in Northern Ireland, and fell by 0.3 per cent in Wales, over the same period.
James Joyce called Guinness ‘the wine of Ireland’. Now it feels a bit more like the Coca-Cola of alcohol – as much brash branding as beer. Once, it merely had an ugly logo and the rowdy promise of Emerald Isle hedonism which – I confess I have often thought – is crafted to appeal to
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