London house prices "to grow 35% by 2018" – is this a bubble or not?

Bubble? What bubble? Yes, we know that all the London house prices news seems to contradict itself every other day, but its Friday, so let’s focus on the good news – “good news” if, that is, you’re a London property owner.

London house prices look set to grow by a goliath 35% between 2014 and 2018, if new research from property services company CBRE is to be believed.

CBRE is attributing its growth forecast to the surge in demand that the government’s Help to Buy scheme will cause, coupled with ongoing restrictions holding back new house-building.

The CBRE figures were reported by City A.M. They come hot off the back of Rightmove figures that found London house prices grew 10% in the month of October alone.

We also reported earlier this month that the average London house is expected to cost more than £500,000 by 2018 – more than double the UK average price at that time – according to research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

So are we on the brink of an almighty London housing bubble or not? You decide…

• Justin Urquhart Stewart: Don’t worry about a housing bubble – it’s “Help to Buy” you should fear
• Five reasons why the London property bubble will burst
• Economics Nobel Laureate says UK is in housing bubble
• “Chances of housing bubble extremely slim,” says EY