Tories call for limit as ‘immigrants push up house prices’
October 10, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
The Tories have called for a cap on yearly immigration as it is blamed as one reason for the increase in UK house prices.
Research by property finder.com revealed that one in five people feel that restricting the influx of foreigners to Britain was the best way to bring down inflated prices and demand.
The second biggest cause of higher housing costs was attributed to property investors.
However, chief executive of propertyfinder.com, Warren Bright, expressed concern of the general public’s “poor” understanding of the real causes of the high prices.
Speaking on the subject he said: “10 years of low interest rates have brought about Britain’s high house prices, but this is poorly understood by most people.
“Restrictive planning policy enthusiastically enforced by local councils has severely constrained the ability of developers to provide the number of homes needed by Britain’s rising number of households, and has exacerbated the rise in property values.”
He added that immigrants and property investors could not alone be blamed as they were “too small in number”.
The news comes as Yorkshire Bank research found 43 per cent of Brits considering buying property abroad.
