Housebuilder share boom 'not sustainable' "We have ultra-low interest rates, we have a government policy that is deliberately trying to get the housing market going, we are now seeing talk about house price bubbles occurring," said Mr Cross. But in the meantime people's real wages are lower than they were in 2008, so we would question the long-term sustainability of trying to pump up the housing market. Some fund managers have said there is room for further gains. Richard Watts of Old Mutual, for example, owns several housebuilders, including Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Barratt, in his UK Mid Cap fund. George Godber, co-manager of the Miton UK Value Opportunities fund, is another manager who favours the builders - they account for just over 6pc of his fund. "The sector offers strong asset-backed balance sheets and extremely good cash generation," he said. But Mr Fosh said returns on housebuilders were questionable when examined over the long term. "When you study housebuilders" returns over the full economic cycle, this is one sector that has great difficulty in consistently covering its cost of capital year in, year out," he said. Mr Cross and Mr Fosh have run the £1.1bn Liontrust Special Situations fund together for the past five years, delivering 123pc to investors over the period versus a sector average of 46pc.