The true cost of city house prices

But our report today on the extent to which the price of one and two-bedroom flats has shot up since 1997 makes for sobering reading. As usual, it looks like good news for those who are already on the Capital property ladder, but depressing for those who are not.

Increasingly though it is not as straightforward as that - and the sky high house prices are having a negative impact on the lives even of the ‘winners’ in the ‘property game’. Sitting pretty with a comfortable mortgage is all well and good, but what happens when the kids fly the coop and can’t afford to live anywhere nearby. Dealing with a family break-up is hard at the best of times but all the more so when the cost of setting up two homes in the city is so prohibitive. It’s a problem that is chewing away at the ties that bind us together.

There are very some real issues surrounding the level of housebuilding in many parts of the city, from the prospect of increasingly congested roads to growing difficulties seeing the GP. This is a reminder of how badly the new homes are needed, but the development still needs managed properly.