The latest UK unemployment figures show just 4.5 per cent of British people out of work, the lowest since the summer of 1975. (Coincidentally, a referendum in summer 1975 took the UK into the European Union.)
In the intervening 42 years, real estate prices have risen almost 20-fold, and interest rates remain at a historic low.
For property investors, the latest employment figures are good news, since they demonstrate a resilient economy, with widespread confidence and general ability to afford healthy rents.
House prices in the UK continued to rise in July 2017, up 2.8 per cent in the past 12 months, and by 1.1 per cent in the past month in London.
Despite high employment figures, wage growth has been limited in Britain for some years, persuading the Bank of England to keep interest rates at their current low level.
And despite ever rising property prices, demand for homes remains undiminished: one major national property website announced that almost half of the homes advertised with them are under offer within a month of appearing – the highest figure since they began collecting this data in 2010.
And the RICS June Residential Market Survey forecast annual increases of 3.2 per cent for the next five years, along with 3.6 per cent rental increases.
