just because something happened in the past it doesn't mean that...

just because something happened in the past it doesn't mean that the same will happen in the future. The explosion in house prices over previous decades has in the large part been driven by structural change in the availability of credit and reductions in interest rates with the population able to service much higher mortgages due to the lower interest costs over time. This structural reduction in interest rates simply can not be repeated as interest rates are already super low and can't go much lower. This means that the rate of capital growth experienced over previous decades is likely to be at a reduced level. The other negative in my mind is the demographic shift in the population as it ages and the older generations having little superannuation as compulsory superannuation was not around when they were younger and the majority of their retirement assets are in the family home, which they may want to sell and downsize to smaller properties. This may be a positive for smaller properties, such as apartments, however overall if they are selling larger houses they would be net sellers of the overall housing stock, placing downward pressure on prices. Of course there are other factors at play, such as the levels of immigration and population growth, however I see these two factors, the structural reduction in interest rates and the ageing of the population as being negative headwinds on the property market. Of course just my thoughts and happy to see what other people think on these issues and other factors that they see impacting.