| The UK has historically been a society where the poor majority worked the land and rented from a few wealthy landowners. [0] This builds a psyche whereby to own land becomes a social status. Bring into that heady mix the likes of Maggie Thatcher's "right to buy" [1] scheme, whereby the lesser class (council house residents) are in a position to buy their homes at a fraction of their apparent worth, and suddenly you need to own your house or be seen to be less than those that do. Then a new generation comes along and sees that their parents "foolishly" sold off a couple of houses years ago that would now have been worth a mint, and everyone must buy a house else be caught out like their parents. Buy to let then brings in the mentality of "why would you give money to someone else to pay off their mortgage when you could be paying off your own?" and everyone must buy as early as possible. Pure conjecture on my part. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure_of_the_United... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Buy |