The consultancy predicts that home building initiatives (both public and private) will fail to match ever-rising demand, and that London’s population growth will be far greater than has been previously imagined. Last year, London mayor Boris Johnson prophesised that the capital would be inhabited by up to 10m people come 2036; Oxford Economics believes that figure will be closer to 11m.

The forecast notes that even using conservative forecasting metrics, average London house prices would at least double in the next 15 years.

“Using fairly simple arithmetic produces quite a striking number. We have a forecast for growth in pay and we are assuming simply that house prices rise at the same rate,” commented Richard Holt, head of global cities research at Oxford Economics.

“In the past house prices have tended to rise faster. It could be earlier but equally there could be a crash, there are all sorts of possibilities. The concern would be if people on lower incomes were seeing a slower increase in their pay than those on higher incomes.

“We hope that at some point in the next year the Mayor’s advisers will revise upwards their forecasts. Getting the numbers right is vital.”