Dunno if it should be those who have parents who can cover things benefit, though.
Not that there's an obvious answer, but artificially keeping prices high didn't help, because of the fear of people going into negative equity. Only thing that should matter for a home owner should be whether they can afford the monthly payment, not how much the house is worth... and I don't really care if buy-to-let landlords lose some cash on their investment!
Do remember before the crash having a very strange chat with a bank advisor (once they realised my qualifications
) despite working on a part time zero hours temp contract at the time, they were prepared to lend me money on the basis of my hourly salary being full-time permanent. Madness!
Fortunately I'm sensible and didn't take them up on the offer
but it didn't come as a huge shock to me when it all came crashing down a few months later...!