With house prices falling in a number of global locations, the UK property market has been bucking the trend. How much longer will this “economic miracle” continue.

Indeed, wading through the plethora of housing statistics that are produced by a diverse set of UK organisations, it’s clear that UK property prices have been rising for more than a decade. In the past year alone, the average price of a UK property has risen in value by around 10%.

This property boom has been driven by a number of factors – the UK has historically low unemployment figures, with interest rates having been at low levels for much of the past ten years.

The cost of borrowing has been low, while banks, building societies and other mortgage lenders have all been keen to lend money to potential home-owners.

The property market has also seen a transition – gone are the days when the majority of buyers were simply looking for a home. Now, everyone’s looking for an investment.

Such has been the performance of the UK property market that some have even started to look at property as a means of providing for their pensions. Across the country people are snapping up properties and then renting them out.

The plan is to make money from the rental incomes, while also seeing the properties rise in value. The buy-to-let phenomenon has arrived and has been keeping the market buoyant.

Recent months have seen some warning signs appear. Darker clouds hover, in the shape of rising interest rates.

As the UK has developed a debt culture, inflation has started to rise and economists are keen to see it kept under control. The result has been some sharp increases in interest rates.

All of a sudden, the cost of borrowing is rising. Making a profit from buy-to-let, at least in the short-term, could become more difficult. There is even hushed talk of a house price crash, last witnessed almost 20 years ago.

The future of the UK property market looks far less certain.

Unlike many other countries (for example the United States) the UK is actually a very small space geographically considering how many people live here. Space to build new housing, particularly in urban areas is extremely limited. This has the simple effect of limiting the supply of new housing that comes on to the market

With a growing population demand has never been higher. Many people cite the large numbers of immigrants moving to the United Kingdom from Eastern Europe as having a huge effect on the demand for housing. Even if these migrant workers do not buy, they still need to live somewhere, namely in rented or buy to let accommodation.

The net affect of this increase in demand and limited supply will obviously push prices higher. Obviously the higher property prices move, the less affordable housing is to those with low incomes. However prices have not fallen? The reason may be explained buy the recent boom in buy to let property purchases. Many individuals on relatively high incomes have entered the buy to let market and become landlords. More often than not their prospective tenants are those on low incomes that simply can’t afford to buy.

As can be seen there are many reasons why the housing market may not be destined for a crash. Although a slowing economy may have an effect the fundamental indicate that a crash may not be the certainty that some people feel is just around the corner.