With house prices falling in a number of global locations, the UK property market has been bucking the trend. How much longer will this "economic miracle" continue.
Sitting at a table in a local coffee house, I'm joined by two local estate agents. Both have been in the business for less than ten years and are keen to tell me about their successes.
"This is boom time for the UK economy and rising house prices have made a lot of people in this country very rich".
Indeed, wading through the plethora of housing statistics that are produced by a diverse set of UK organisations, it's clear that UK property prices have been rising for more than a decade. In the past year alone, the average price of a UK property has risen in value by around 10%.
This property boom has been driven by a number of factors - the UK has historically low unemployment figures, with interest rates having been at low levels for much of the past ten years.
The cost of borrowing has been low, while banks, building societies and other mortgage lenders have all been keen to lend money to potential home-owners.
The property market has also seen a transition - gone are the days when the majority of buyers were simply looking for a home. Now, everyone's looking for an investment.
Such has been the performance of the UK property market that some have even started to look at property as a means of providing for their pensions. Across the country people are snapping up properties and then renting them out.
The plan is to make money from the rental incomes, while also seeing the properties rise in value. The buy-to-let phenomenon has arrived and has been keeping the market buoyant.
Recent months have seen some warning signs appear. Darker clouds hover, in the shape of rising interest rates.
As the UK has developed a debt culture, inflation has started to rise and economists are keen to see it kept under control. The result has been some sharp increases in interest rates.
All of a sudden, the cost of borrowing is rising. Making a profit from buy-to-let, at least in the short-term, could become more difficult. There is even hushed talk of a house price crash, last witnessed almost 20 years ago.
The future of the UK property market looks far less certain.
Keith Barrett has written for Finance Facts about
house prices and other personal finance issues. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.
