For much of the past fifteen years the housing market has continued to function, but not in a normal way.

 

Transaction levels remained below historic averages while demand accumulated quietly beneath the surface.

 

Cheap finance allowed investors to support activity at the lower end, while traditional first-time buyers increasingly entered higher up the ladder or were excluded entirely.

 

This supplement explores how those structural shifts changed the market — and why the next phase may be driven by participation returning rather than speculation leading.