Much of the recent rises are due to investment money entering the system and the calculation used to determine mortgage lending limits changing (from 3x your in

Much of the recent rises are due to investment money entering the system and the calculation used to determine mortgage lending limits changing (from 3x your income to 5x or more). The rises in the early 00s were due to buy-to-let money entering the system. In the 80s it was due to significant wage increases. Before that the last significant rise was in the 50s when households shifted to having two incomes as more women started earning, much of which went on buying a bigger house, which dragged prices up. Every time there's a major price increase you can point to a congruent increase in the amount of money available to buy houses. I don't think it's a coincidence.