Research and analysis

Previous housing market downturns: A rapid review and analysis of English housing market downturns and government responses

This report analyses 4 English housing market downturns from 1970 onwards and the associated government responses.

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Published: 29 January 2026

Applies to England

Documents

Previous housing market downturns: A rapid review and analysis of English housing market downturns and government responses

PDF, 725 KB, 97 pages

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Details

This report was commissioned by a previous Administration and is being published for reasons of transparency. This is an independent report which represents the views of the authors. It does not necessarily represent the views of the Department and not is it a statement of policy.

This report provides a rapid review and analysis of 4 previous English housing market downturns in the early 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2007-08, as well as the associated government responses.

The paper adopts a recession-based definition of a housing market downturn, analysing key indicators including house prices (real and nominal), housing output, transactions, first time buyer numbers and possessions.

Published 29 January 2026