UK price rise
The stamp duty holiday and ongoing low mortgage rates saw UK house prices rise +8.5 per cent in 2020.
The average house price moved up to ₤252,000.
Source: ONS
This was the strongest increase in six years.
Of course mortgage rates were already ultra-cheap in the UK and could barely go any lower than they already were.
It's a totally different story in Australia, where mortgage rates have plunged at a time when most households are unable to travel overseas, and as such are awash with cash.
This is what leads Dr. Cameron Murray and others to forecast Brisbane housing prices to rise by up to 45 per cent through this cycle.
As I've noted here before, assuming mortgage rates stay low for some time prices could rise by a third without troubling mortgage interest serviceability ratios (though paying back the principle might be a different proposition for some new borrowers).
With so little interest-only borrowing in Australia now debt to income ratios have been declining lately, setting us up for the next property bull.
