... or by a hike in interest rates... or another banking crisis brought on by 5% deposit mortgages and the like. Personally, I don't by the lack of supply argument. 70% of new builds in London are snapped up by investors and I'm sure a large number of them are overseas. So how many would you need to build for it to have an impact on the residential market? It's not like there are fewer properties than people - far from it, in prime London there are a lot of empty properties. Until government pursue policies which discourage international speculation in the 'property investment market', then prices will be all over the place and bear no relation to local wages or housing need.