House price inflation in the news: a critical discourse analysis of newspaper coverage in the UK

Abstract

In the UK, house prices have been rising over a long period, notwithstanding the disruption caused by the financial crisis, creating growing concerns about affordability particularly for younger households, while existing owners continue to enjoy windfall wealth gains. This paper uses critical discourse analysis to examine how these competing interests with respect to house price rises are represented in popular discourse. It systematically analyses newspaper coverage, comparing two time periods, one relatively stable and the second a period of rising house prices. This analysis exposes the powerful influence of industry insiders in creating the discourse of the housing market news, and how price rises are positioned as both beneficial and the ‘natural order’. Analysing the metaphoric representations of housing markets allows a closer interrogation of the ideological construct that associates a ‘healthy’ housing market as one of continuous price rises and shows how these discourses are deeply embedded, in ways that limit the scope for imagining an alternative house market functioning.

Keywords:

• House prices
• house price inflation
• critical discourse analysis
• analysis of newspapers

Notes

1. This useful suggestion was raised by a referee.

2. Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the then ruling coalition (Conservative/Lib Dem) Government.