The house price boom is looking dangerously like a bubble now

UK house prices are looking dangerously expensive. John Stepek breaks down why it is rising and how higher inflation can derail the growth.

House
UK house prices are at a seven-year high
(Image credit: Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Image)

House prices in the UK rose by 10.9% in the year to May.

That's the most rapid growth seen in almost seven years, according to Nationwide.

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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.