To Make Property Affordable To the Young, It's Time to Raise Interest Rates

Many savers continue to complain about low interest rates, and how it has damaged their income and even wealth. At the same time, many of those trying to get on to, or climb, the housing ladder, complain bitterly about the way high asset prices, which are a by-product of low interest rates, have locked them out. So here’s a proposal: the Bank of England should simply stop worrying about the damage to growth, and jack up rates, say to 3pc or even higher. At one and the same time, cash savings would again yield a real rate of interest and there would be a massive correction in house prices, with highly leveraged borrowers and buy-to-let landlords forced to dump their properties on the market at fire-sale prices. As things stand, property has become virtually the exclusive preserve of those who already own it. Ultra-low interest rates are a large part of the reason. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.