So how's the UK housing market doing? Still in crisis, it would seem. Even the Brexit vote has not arrested property's steady rise in value: according to Nationwide's figures, asking prices went up 0.6pc in August.

As an increase in demand and a lacklustre level of supply drives up the value of the nation's housing, the demographics of home ownership have changed. While older people are more likely to own a home outright than they were 25 years ago, younger people have to wait much longer than their elders did to buy their first house.

These problems are exacerbated by a chronic shortage of construction which shows little sign of being solved.

Prices

They are still rising, and fast. The average UK house price was £214,000 in June this year, says the Office for National Statistics, which is £24,000 more than it was at the pre-economic downturn peak in September 2007.

Even nervousness over Brexit didn't dent the onward march of house prices: annual growth increased to 5.6pc in August from 5.2pc in July.

This is nothing new: over the last decade or so, the average cost of a house has increased 50pc, according to figures from the ONS.