Osborne’s plan will inflate house prices, say economists

 
29 May 2013
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

George Osborne’s bid to kick-start Britain’s housing market risks fuelling property prices, leading economists warned today.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development joined outgoing Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King and former chancellor Alistair Darling in raising concerns that house prices, already unaffordable for many in London, could go higher.

The Paris-based think tank said: “Policy measures to support the housing market are likely to encourage investment and supply. But without a sufficient supply response, some measures could create upward pressure on prices.”

Sir Mervyn has said Mr Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme was “a little too close for comfort” to a general scheme to guarantee mortgages and Mr Darling warned the scheme could cause a price “bubble”.

A YouGov poll showed 77 per cent of Londoners believe house prices will rise over the next 12 months.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in