Emma hold on to your cash it is going to get worse and house prices will not hit rock bottom until the end of 2009 and after that they could just level off so find a high interes paying account and as they say in Scotland bide your time.

Andrew White, Edinburgh, UK

Take the speculative element from the housing market and stability will surely follow.
House price inflation should follow real inflation only,and this should be law. Any departure from this could attract large tax penalties, in effect ,capital gains tax. Only the usual parasites would lose out.

james walter, bath, Banes

UK is being pulled under by debt-ladened concrete boots. As house prices fall, more bad debts will surface, more write offs, tighter lending criteria, etc. etc in a downward spiral. The housing market was a Ponzi scheme which is now going into reverse. Stay away!

j barrows, newcastle, uk

I'm hoping to by my 1st property in the next year or 2 so long as I can find a good sized apartment for a reasonable price - not easy at the moment!
I'm lucky though that I've managed to save approx. £65k and expect to save enough by the time I'm ready to buy to put down at least a 30% deposit.

Emma, London,

FTBs should just NOT BUY until they can get 3 times salary family homes. Then we can get this crash over and done with.

Dere, Camberley,

This can only be good news for a hyper-inflated housing market. Let's get back to sensible wage multiples of lending so future generations aren't simply subsidising the retirement plans of the older generations. People also invested in property due to ack of faith in pensions - who can save now?

Rich, Guildford, UK

Chris, Kent

If landlords up their rents their properties will remain empty. The only way to get tenants now with thousands of competing "accidental landlords" is to slash the rent. Looks like you are falling for the one about rising rents, the stepson of rising prices.

anthony, london, england

It hard to believe that there are still so many FTBs (the other 64%) willing to buy in to this market. Failing a miracle, these people are looking at a decade of unnecessary hardship and worry.

A Harris, Kettering, UK

Chris of Chipping Norton.
I left UK in 2005 on the basis that living in the South East was going to involve both of us being a slave to the mortgage for the forseeable future and for what? A pokey three bed semi with street parking.

Rob, Holland,

All of which points to prices falling until the banks and building societies are willing to offer 90% mortgages again, based on low income multiples, just like a decade ago.

Paul, Coventry,

If only there was a nationalised bank, that could scrap fees and offer low loan to value mortgages at base rate. Still, we'll never see a bank nationalised in our lifetimes...oh, right. I meant, we'll never see a(the) nationalised bank helping the nation.

Phil, Nottingham, UK

I, like most people understand how much a pound can buy or what it is worth. I can comprehend £10, £100, £1000 and perhaps £10k. But 99.9% of people have no idea what £350000 is yet they value their house at this.

Paul, harrow,

Banks & bankers are just too greedy for words. The BOE bailed them out, and their response is to load as much as they can on the public with unreasonable charges. Government should Tax their windfall profits, give them to first time buyers, maybe then we will get some common sense to prevail.

Richard J Powell, New Milton, Hampshire

I am not surprised many first time buyers are electing to be later buyers. It's a smart move. They are keeping out of harms way in a falling market.

Mike, Tauranga, New Zealand

Landlords will now up thier rents becaue if no one will buy the market is growing for them the buy to let landlords win either way.

chris, kent, uk

The banks should have always demanded at least 10% deposits and government should have brought in measures to prevent buy-to-let. I am baffled by what motivates hard working, educated people with families to stay in this country and live in rabbit hutches with a live time of debt.

chris, chipping norton,