Why should banks earn higher risk adjusted returns on equity financing property than when financing businesses?

Sir, John Plender writes “Historically, the biggest single cause of financial crises in the UK has been the bursting of property bubbles” “BoE lacks tools needed to prick property bubble” September 25.

If that is so, which I have no reason to suspect it is not then would he, or Lord Turner, explain to us, why were regulators allowing banks to lend to property against less capital than when doing much other lending? Did that not signify that banks would be earning higher risk adjusted returns on equity on property lending than on other lending? Did that not doom banks, next time a property bubble burst, that everything would be so much worse, since banks would be standing there with especially little capital?

BoE does not lack tools. It just needs to arm itself with a new generation of regulators capable of understanding that risk-taking is not something dirty, even when banks do it. And of understanding that there is nothing as risky as excessive risk-aversion.