Sir James Crosby, the former boss of HBoS, is set to unveil his scheme to kick-start the mortgage market at the end of the month.

These recommendations, which should make home loans more easily available, are eagerly awaited; there is a consensus that the remedy for the housing market's woes lies in cheaper borrowing for the creditworthy.

It is find to hard anyone much impressed with last week's announcements from the Government which included a small stamp duty concession.

Estate agents whose business has dried up amid the mortgage drought are especially agog to hear Sir James's solutions. They would probably prefer him not to delay another day, especially as vendors who cannot find buyers always blame their agent first.

The latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) depicts agents' distress, showing a fall in transactions and a drop off in new buyer enquiries which had been ticking up since the lows seen in April.

Some companies are selling just one property a week, although RICs does point out that the "closely watched ratio of sales compared to the stock of unsold property on the market ...is still comfortably above the low of the early 1990s."

The agents also report that there is little "distress selling", suggesting that, for the moment, homeowners seem to be coping with the burden of larger food and fuel bills and higher mortgage repayments.

The hush that has fallen over estate agents' offices has been replaced with a buzz about websites that allow sellers desperate to find buyers to circumvent - or supplement - estate agents' services.

Almost every day a new site makes its debut, promising quick, hassle-free, low commission deals: recent additions include www.youdontneedanestateagent.com and www.simplyzigzag.com.

As yet, there are no reliable statistics on the efficacy of these operations which claim so much.

The canniest vendors are finding another shortcut to a sale. There is increasing evidence that they are contacting property search agents, businesses employed to find properties for those with either little time or inclination to househunt.

These are people who actually want to buy a home - yours, maybe?

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