The writer is founder and director at housing market research firm Residential Analysts
The UK is slowly adjusting to the biggest economic and social shock of the past 75 years. Each week brings more news of job losses and damage to the economy, but it also brings news of a booming housing market. The question many are asking is why the housing market seems immune to the effects of Covid-19. Will house prices never go down?
The answer is complicated. It is possible for house prices to fall. Recessions and house-price corrections have gone hand-in-hand in decades past. With this in mind, as Britain went into lockdown in March it was widely predicted that there would be a fall in house prices. The market shutdown appeared to provide some insulation from the immediate impact of a recession, but job loses, falls in income and a credit crunch all foretold a period of gloom. Yet since the housing market reopened, there have instead been signs of a boom over the normally quiet summer months.