> in practice it seems to help push up demand and therefore prices All of these schemes do that, because they address the housing market from the government-pr

> in practice it seems to help push up demand and therefore prices All of these schemes do that, because they address the housing market from the government-preserving invariant condition of "We can't ever let the market drop, we'd be voted out in a second" So they come up with schemes and financial products to allow more people to access home ownership in some form or other without impacting property values. See also stamp-duty holidays. More or less by definition these things increase demand and push house prices up further. It's insanity. It's also massively to my benefit as a homeowner who is about to leave the UK...