My friend says house prices will always go up forever

Really? I mean it kind of looks like to me that at a really basic level, the ability for human society to put four walls and a roof together is becoming cheaper and more effective, the gradual normalisation of remote working means there's less need to overpay to stay in overcrowded localities, and we are reaching a critical level of homelessness where governments are being forced to entertain the idea of basic affordable houses whether that is tiny homes or container homes or 3D printed structures. Oh and the sunset years of the baby boom is about to lead to a sudden population decline.

It looks to me like the only thing holding up prices is the banks lending out more loans to inflate mortgages, but federal governments are now under huge pressure to turn off the tap and lift interest rates, and then no more massive loans, no more giant bids on houses, then a market decline as this Ponzi runs out of fools