Every January the property industry performs the same annual ritual. Estate agents return from the holidays with renewed optimism, newspapers begin publishing predictions for “the year ahead”, and buyers convince themselves that this might finally be the moment value appears.

If you’re a Londoner - especially a Londoner who’s spent the past decade trying to pretend that a £2.3m terraced house in Clapham is “modest” - then Rachel Reeves’ Autumn 2025 Budget may have felt like a very personal attack.