http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27461692

AKA everyone saying 'Oh hell no, you're not blaming me'.

Vince Cable: rising house prices destabilising economy

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/m ... ng-economy

On the plus side, the Mail can dust off some of it's old tropes.

the prices in London are insane right now, help to buy up to 600k and on let to buy is not helping.It needs scaling back.
However, I don't think it's the main issue.
A project I'm working on, which is smallish flats in Manor House, has been 40% bought by singaporean buyers. These are flats built on ex-council land, in a grotty part of London, not the fashionable W something.
There should be rules against these advertising UK property to foreign investors, saying they'll make a quick buck out of it, hundreds of flats have gone directly to foreign investors, and that's just on projects I'm involved in.
This is all rent money leaving the UK economy :S

+1, we're definitely at the point where we have to tackle housing shortage, and that sort of thing isn't on for the scale of change needed.

-1. This is stuff being built, it increases supply, which reduces prices. Or it stays empty in which case no rent money leaves the UK. You can't complain about both ends of that at once, it's insane.

A lot of them are staying empty, they do not need to be let to make money. There is a very similar issue in Australia. Even if not, people have to live somewhere, even if it's a 2 bed flat for £1400 a month in Hackney.
In London, these developments are built on ex council land, after removing council tenants so there is actual loss of accommodation.
Even if they weren't, there is not enough land in the South East for huge areas of it to be unused
related Guardian article

That article says 2,000 properties being leveled, 5,500 being built. I submit that the second number is bigger than the first one.
There is a tremendous amount of available land in and around (especially around) London.
There are also lots of squalid nasty housing estates that should be ripped up and replaced.

Very few of these buy to invest properties are left unoccupied, it only makes sense to do that if you are using the property as collateral for a loan (and need the liquidity option of a quick sale). You are allowing mythology to overtake basic reason.

I think this was a waste of money in the first place. It was always artificially going to keep prices higher.