I bring up low interest rates because getting a larger amount for a mortgage is cheaper, buyers will go to banks to check what's the largest mortgage they can get to fit into their budget to then go shopping for a house, so the prices are directly correlated to how much credit you're able to get, pushing prices upwards which the investors/developers can scoop up.
Now prices are extremely high, mortgages aren't so easy to get and we see prices going down (here in Sweden there's been a 10-20% fall), but they are still much, much higher than 10-15 years ago. It's pushed people like me, with a decent salary but no family wealth whatsoever to be basically priced out of the market. I'd need to save about 20-30% of my net salary every month for about 2-3 years to afford just the down payment for a small apartment on the outskirts of the city. I'm not able to do that while my parents depend on me and I still have rent to pay.