There are plenty of commentators who can quash the illusion that rising property wealth brings about more benefits than costs. Few are better at the task than the economist Roger Bootle.

In today’s Telegraph he provides a superb critique of the impact of the decade long housing boom. This is tremendous evaluation for students preparing for their unit 3 AQA paper on housing economics next week.

Roger writes:

“There have been millions of people whose lives have been distorted by property considerations - people forced to move, or prevented from moving, forced to commute long distances and/or live apart from their families, people who have refrained from having more children, or indeed any at all, because they could not afford decent accommodation. As house prices fall, these people’s life choices will be different.”

The remainder of the article is here