This isn’t a property bubble – it’s a reason to improve London’s transport

Everyone —including me, if I’m honest — has been talking about a new property bubble. But is it for real? London house prices are rising at an annual rate of almost 10 per cent, and shares in the capital’s bellwether back-from-the-dead estate agency Foxtons soared on their stock market debut last week. Yet according to the Office for National Statistics, the national rise is just 3.3 per cent, the average price of a home having only recently regained its pre–credit-crunch peak. -Outside the South-East, and hotspots such as oil-rich Aberdeen, the pattern is largely flat or even falling. Although real incomes (adjusted for inflation) have fallen over the past five years, nominal incomes have risen by 10 per cent or so, which means the average house is, at least notionally, a little more affordable than it was in 2008.

And although the government’s Help to Buy and Funding for Lending schemes have breathed life into the mortgage market (in the latter case by scooping cash the Bank of England would clearly have preferred to see lent to small businesses), many would-be first-time buyers still struggle to raise finance.