I'm really surprised people still buy into the 'you can't lose buying property' line.
Interesting piece from the Economist suggesting UK property is still way overpriced
There are always a lot of people interested in talking up property prices and there are a lot of different metrics people use to justify their beliefs (first time buyers, prices to rents, average price as a multiple of average incomes etc) and by many of them prices still look high.
It's pretty evident that house prices are driven purely by supply, demand and sentiment – there's little link to any underlying asset – hence the rises of the last year while very little property was for sale.
When interest rates rise, and rise they will at some point, theres a whole great deal of buy-to-let fall out still to come. I've also read an interesting view regarding our aging population that says that as the baby boomers downsize and die off you'll get a big glut of property being sold and not enough buyers which will drive prices down.