Like you said it is complicated and what is true for one location is not true for another. Take your statement "If you own a house worth, say, £400,000, I’ve got news for you: almost all of that value is not in the house, it’s in the land underneath it." I own a house valued at around $200,000, the lot (the land underneath it) is worth less than $50,000 and there are many more desirable unbuilt lots nearby. I wish they would stop cutting down forest and filling swamps around here to build new homes. I can't win that argument at city council meetings. The politicians, population and builders want taxes, growth and jobs.

TEK