Social problems caused by house price inflation

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Sustained house price inflation creates a number of major social problems including the following:

Growth of the proportion of rental properties and decline in the proportion of properties that are available for purchase. This is an almost automatic phenomenon caused by house prices going beyond the level that people can borrow, and deposits also escalating. In these conditions, investment buyers become much more powerful in the market, and can use this power to amass large portfolios of homes, which are then offered for rent.
Overcrowding. Overcrowding is one of the many tangible impacts of the housing crisis on households across the country. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that homes with six residents are the fastest growing category of household and three million people in the UK now live in a home with at least five other individuals. In a period of price inflation, tenants are increasingly forced to sublet communal rooms as bedro...

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