House prices in the UK's biggest cities might be set to follow rents lower

As people leave Britain's cities – whether city-dwellers upsizing to the country or foreign workers returning home – property rents have fallen hard. That could mean a fall in house prices too, says John Stepek.

Flats in London's City Island development
As people move out of cities, demand for urban rented accommodation is falling
(Image credit: © John Keeble/Getty Images)

I've written a fair bit about the housing market over the past year. The big headline-grabbing story has been that, despite Covid-19, house prices have surged (which is a global phenomenon, not just a UK-based one).

However, there's another, arguably more interesting phenomenon going on. And it's one that suggests that in certain areas at least, the surge in prices may run out of steam.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
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.