“It is no wonder that George Osborne is beginning to get twitchy and is giving the Bank of England powers to put the brakes on Help to Buy if it gets out of hand,” said Nicholas Ayre, managing director of homebuying agency Home Fusion.

“Although fears of a house price bubble are overstated, it is important not to be complacent. A bubble implies that people are buying anything at any price, and they are not, but the fear is that if demand continues to surge at the levels we are seeing, this will start to happen.”

View Feature

London has always attracted the super rich – in the 1970s it was the oil money from the Gulf. In the 1980s it attracted Asian industrialists and financiers and then Russian Oligarchs. Even with a global economic downturn, the city is still benefitting, as BBC’s Aaron Heslehurst has been finding out.

View Video

Nicholas Ayre, of UK buying agents Home Fusion, said: “Interest rates and mortgages are key. If the Bank [of England] rate remains at its current level, and if lenders do not go back into their shells, 2012 could see house prices continue to stagnate rather than collapse. That is probably the best we can hope for.

View Feature