The Nicola Sturgeon effect on house prices

Nicola Sturgeon depresses me and seems to be having the same effect on Scottish house prices. In a housing market described by departing Bank of England economist Andy Haldane as ‘on fire’, the flames have been rising higher the further away from London — but more or less extinguishing themselves at Hadrian’s Wall. Why buyers are scarcer in Nicola’s domain is a question I’ll leave to our political writers, but the broader picture of soaring home prices across the rest of the UK is an unforeseen pandemic effect that may have painful consequences.

Nationwide’s June data shows an annual price-rise bar chart increasing steadily from 7.3 per cent in London through the English provinces to 13 per cent in Yorkshire and Humberside and even higher in Wales and Northern Ireland. The stamp-duty holiday that’s now tapering off (and in fact stopped on 31 March in Scotland, where the rise is just 7.1