Although we’re neither organised or vocal, you and I form probably the strongest lobby in the UK: homeowners.

Though still a majority, about 65% of households, we’re slipping from over 70% ten years ago. What we want from ‘the system’ is clear: house prices to rise in the way that we have become accustomed to.

In the twenty years from 1988, average prices rose from £50k to well over £150k; from 1995 to 2007 they increased 350%.

We expect the place we live to be our main asset, with a relentlessly rising value we can effortlessly dip into when the time comes, padded of course by our special capital gains tax exemption.

We saw the recent price adjustment as a crash, but didn’t have to wait too long for things to get back to ‘normal’, at least in London.

All things being equal though, even in Manchester house prices remain well above their historical wage to price ratio, so there’s still some way down to their ‘real’ value.

Yes, restricted supply continues to exert upward pressure, but gone are the days up here when you got home from a hard day’s work to find your house had earned more than you did.

Before Help to Buy, a new phase of gentle deflation seemed to be settling, with banks no longer giving mortgages to passers-by, wannabe homeowners unable to get credit or deposits, stamp duty as much as 7% and people moving half as frequently.

Some of us began to slowly start the psychological shift to staying put and writing off our ‘losses’, be that money we’d hoped to bank, or owings on a mortgage worth more than the property. Unlike in the US, where the law allows you to send the keys back and that’s the end of it (‘jingle mail’), in the UK you can’t just walk away.

Unlike the US then, we faced no barracks of repossessed and rotting mansions, just the long, hard slog of negative equity, gumming up the labour market in the process.

In the US, house prices today are barely above their 1995 level; in the UK they are over 200% higher, probably now awaiting the much-delayed but inevitable interest rate rise that will likely bring about the next bout of correction, if that is the Government of the day doesn’t put in a whole new dam.

What’s bad for the 65% though, is better for others. A few months ago, the number of people privately renting exceeded those in social housing for the first time.

What’s bad for the 65% though, is better for others. A few months ago, the number of people privately renting exceeded those in social housing for the first time.

Under 10% of homeowners today are under 35-years-old. Most of this ‘rentysomething’ generation want to buy, but are waiting for prices to come down to an affordable level.

A rationalist might hope that over time this illogical desire is likely to fade, as maths mitigates against the burdens of ownership on a costly asset unlikely to generate value, families lose the habit, and one day perhaps government evens out tax privileges between owners and non-owners and puts in place stronger regulation to make private sector renting more secure for tenants and a more worthwhile long-term proposition for investors, developers and institutional landlords.

That would also help smooth rental prices, which are increasingly inflated. Governments though seem to like the populism of trying to buck the market, the latest attempt being a US-inspired scheme that sees government ending up owning chunks of people’s homes, and the riskier chunks at that; all with the risk of reflating the property bubble that triggered the crisis in the first place.

This is not to say that, like all commodities, house prices are not determined by supply and demand.

This is not to say that, like all commodities, house prices are not determined by supply and demand. However, fewer than half the houses needed are being built, as there seems no acceptable political route to building houses in the places where the market actually wants them. This means supply will continue to be constrained and demand, over time, adjust accordingly. Although less than 3% of Britain’s land is actually built on, too much of the planning system’s is bananas: build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone.

The actual cost of building a decent house in the UK today ought to be around £100k, and to rise gently with inflation. The fact that it is many times that, and has risen drastically, should tell us we’re doing something wrong. Unfortunately, with so many of us so invested in the system, the only house that turning back now would resemble is one of cards.