The UK housing market is booming – here’s one thing that could slow it down

UK house prices continue their rise, with a big increase in activity. The boom may seem unstoppable, says John Stepek, but there is one thing that might just apply the brakes. 

Property for sale signs
The housing market is a hive of activity right now
(Image credit: © Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The UK housing market is booming. That’s the conclusion of the latest report from the people at the coal face – the estate agents and surveyors. I’m starting to think that only one thing might be able to calm this market down – a cure for Covid.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) just put out its housing market update for October. Rics is a bit different to most of the other house price indices – it’s based on the observations and expectations of estate agents and surveyors. So it doesn’t tell you what the average house price is, or how much it went up by. Instead, it gives you an idea of what property market professionals on the ground are seeing around them. So you can get an idea of, on balance, are house prices going up or down, and how strongly are they going up or down? And how optimistic or pessimistic do the people at the sharp end feel?

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.