The greed of the speculators and mortgage mafia led directly to the years of boom and bust. Chiselling little $hits in red braces and shiny suits would turn up in their black BMWs, spend 30 sec 'pricing' a house way above its value, safe in the knowledge that they'd snouted up a percentage for themselves....and would soon be able to afford that symbol of 1980's yuppytime excess, the Porsche 911.
A 2-bedroom semi in Witney cost £34K in 1984; according to the inflation calculator, that should now cost £94K. But the true figure is well over twice that.
Blunty Towers, at £4100 in 1970, would nowadays cost £53177 if house prices hadn't been so ridiculously distorted by Thatcher-greed.
Those wretched, greedy estate agents who encouraged house prices to grow at twice the rate of inflation whilst most salaries increased only at the same rate as inflation, are probably the chief cause of the UK's current financial situation.