In the 1990s, there were two lines of argument against buying properties to let them out instead of living in them yourselves. One was the moral argument that you were driving the boom for your own profit and making houses unaffordable for everyone else; the other was the practical argument that houses were a risky investment. Despite these objections, the buy-to-let market continued to grow and now, twenty years later, the result is that the housing market is totally inaccessible to most of a generation. Rents in London have gone up eight times faster than wages. Plainly, no social good will come of this. Rents will continue to rise, and people who live in London will see their finances become more and more precarious.