Buying properties is heavily state supported in some places (think .NL and .PT - though .PT this has been dismantled). When there is more demand than supply (which, BTW, has happened in both places above), the state subsidy has the pernicious effect of raising property prices even more. It is actually the worse kind of state intervention that I can think off: Apparently supporting working families, effectively transferring capital to banks and property developers (highly regressive), inflating market prices into bubble territory. The working families get no benefit from this has all the subsidy is destroyed through higher prices...