When a 2-bed semi-detached house costs £250K, how will any first-time buyers afford to pay for a mortgage?
Regrettably, avaricious absentee landlords snapped up a lot of such houses some years ago during the last property slump - and now rent them out for ridiculous sums, knowing that their tenants have little alternative. Hence they're often shared by people who each need a car (or, worse still, a company van) for work, who don't give a stuff about the local environment....
If the brainless Osborne hikes up taxes yet further, the situation will only worsen.
Property speculators, greedy estate agents and buy-to-rent landlords are all responsible for the ridiculous price of houses nowadays - but what can anyone do?