Mark: The data you quote do not take into account financing costs (relevant as most purchasers are not cash buyers, and must be included to compare with renting), nor costs like maintenance. With an average of 8%, the growth is only 300%, and that excludes inflation. After inflation, less shiny.

JR, London,

Greedy middle class "experts". I can't believe they are shocked that they could be in negative equity. If I took out a loan and bought £10k of shares and lost it no one would shed a tear for me, why is property speculation be any different?

Brett, London, UK

Houses are 50% inflated compared to 5 years ago. Finally the madness has stopped, and negative equity is collateral damage. The UK housing market was vulnerable to the US economy because of the failure to regulate it and allow it to spiral out of control. Now its getting corrected - good news.

Joe, Manchester,

In the US, we refer to this situation as being "underwater". The solution is not simple, sink with house, ie. stay there hoping that the market will rebound or swim away by abandoning it. In either case the outcome can be scary. Welcome to Arizona, Nevada, Florida and California. No flight required

John, CHICAGO, USA

Many have a distrust of pensions/stock market and thought they could 'play' the property market. Their 'expertise' and 'knowledge' were confirmed by year-on-year increases, fully justifying their pension-free and property-derived wealth on track.

Oh dear...

John, London,

Stability and prudence Labour watch words, pity they didn't know what it meant.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

How many people have made overpayments on their 100 per cent loans sufficient to avoid being in negative equity? Excluding those who've come into a windfall, surely the answer must be roughly none, as most 100 per cent mortgages are taken out by people who cannot afford a deposit.

Adrian, London,

Good one paul but based on nothing other than your opinion. There has never been a price fall lasting 15 years. Prices have fallen 6 times since 1952, 6 times in 55 years. Thats fact (source Nationwide house price index) 620% increase in past 15 years, hardly a break even position. I'll buy you rent

mark connelly, surbiton, surrey

Mark: I think you are hopelessly wrong aside from the physical aspect of 'living in an asset'.

Ultimately the end buyer has bought an asset at one cost and when and if they go to sell will likely see a negative return.

IF they can pay the mortgage for the next 15 years they'll break even.

Paul Sullivan, Chester,

the doom and gloom people will have there day, but the wise investers know that properety = wealth always has and always will, after all propertty is free you never actually pay for it therefore money is for nothing, the only people who lost in the early 90s are those that sold, the key is cash flow

Steve, Doncaster, England

Mark, are all the speculators who drove prices up living in these properties?
If your arguement was true there would be people sleeping on every street.
This is what is spooking the market- the demand isn't real.

barry wiseman, bromley, kent

Barry you are hopelessly wrong, property is completely different from any other asset market. People don't live in the commodity market or live in a BT share. therefore there are all sorts of emotive factors that determine the property market.

mark connelly, surbiton, surrey

Prices will continue to fall and the negative equity club will grow. I think many buyers were hypnotised by property porn. The housing market is not really different to any other market, people seemed to think it was a one way bet.

barry dupont, brighton, east sussex