Over the past five decades, the East experienced its greatest house price growth of any single prime minister under a Conservative premiership but saw the highest overall house price growth during Labour governments, a new study reveals.
Online Mortgage Advisor has assessed how each prime minister of the past five decades has performed when it comes to property, to indicate which party is likely to increase house prices following the upcoming general election.
The study analyses house price growth during each prime minister’s term, along with their housing policies, and highlights the social and economic events that also affected the market.
Of all the prime ministers’ terms since 1974, house prices in the East rose the most substantially during Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. Over this period, the average property value soared by 70.02%.
By contrast, the region experienced its slowest house price growth while Labour’s Gordon Brown was in No. 10, at an average of -8.66%.
From 1974 to today, the East saw higher house price growth overall under Labour governments. The only region to experience higher overall house price growth under the Conservatives for the entire period was Northern Ireland.
Conservative vs. Labour in the rest of the UK
However, these particular prime ministers didn’t disproportionately affect the East, as the report found that it was Thatcher that recorded the highest annual house price growth in the UK of all the prime ministers studied, at an average of 29% (in 1988). Meanwhile, Brown suffered the lowest annual house price growth, of -15%, during the financial crisis of 2008.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t necessarily indicate that the Conservative Party boosted the property market for the better; David Cameron built the fewest new homes of any prime minister since 1923.
Furthermore, in addition to government policies on housing, social and economic factors must also be considered during the periods in question.
It’s likely that all of us will be affected by the future government’s housing policy in some way – this study could help you form an opinion on which party to vote for.
Read the full results of the study here: https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/blog/prime-ministers-house-prices/.
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