"...The cause of the house-price collapse back in the early 90's was the unpredented dumping onto the market of millions of cheap ex-council homes now in private ownership...."

Is this some estate agent assuring a dead market? This was NOT the case at all. It was high gearing or high multiples to income the ratios of which we have far surpassed this time....

Austin Tassletine, South West, UK

The cause of the house-price collapse back in the early 90's was the unpredented dumping onto the market of millions of cheap ex-council homes now in private ownership.
There is no equivalent phenomenon at the moment, therefore, the underlying picture has not changed, namely that of a market with demand that is more turbulent than supply, but which consistently out grows it. Therefore, the medium and longer term housing market crisis, remains that of prices rising without bound.

Ingslot, London, UK

Interesting comments from people "vultures" waiting in the wings for a property price crash. The problem in the logic is that driving property prices down wont alleviate the problem currently being faced - no banks willing to lend the cash to buy a property - hence the only winner's in the scenario are those buyers who are "cashed up" and capable of buying properties without lender's assistance. Prices crashing as many people here predict (hope) will result in further tightening of the credit policies of lenders and a further more towards only those borrowers who are "Super Prime!". Be careful what you wish for.....

Fredi Kanoute, Battersea,

I am a first time buyer buying now - we got about 10% off our house and have secured it with an over 100% mortgage which i doubt today we would be able to get and i doubt in the next two years we would be able to get. I am solicitor and want a house i dont want to rent anymore and I plan on living in it for about 10 years. They accepted our offer a few months ago and today contracts havent been signed yet but i have continued looking at other properties and most i looked at oringinally have gone, other than a few that have lost about 10-15% of their asking price. (i doubt they all took big price cuts??!?! but who knows)

No one is going to accept 50% less its mad - infact a lot of people even if they are in "dire straights" just wouldnt bother getting divorced !!!!

i know a lot of first time buyers who are still buying mortgage are still available just not at 2% anymore.

Helen P, Leeds,

As a young couple aspiring to buy our first home we have spent the last couple of years saving a deposit. We have along the way been told by various friends and relatives that we were 'crazy' to save, and that we should take-out a 100% interest-only mortgage on a fixed-term introductory rate (Northern Rock were doing good deals!). We looked at the numbers and found we could afford the repayments on year one, we'd struggle on year two, but by year three our repayments would have nearly doubled. "Don't worry about that", they said, "when the deal expires you can just remortgage". This was the 'conventional wisdom' at the time, and was endlessly repeated in newspaper columns, lifestyle magazines and television shows.

Thank god we didn't take their advice!

Chris, London,

lets be honest the only way prices will drop in real terms is when we buys start putting in proper offers for houses. There are plenty of people out there who are in dire straights, I personally feel sorry for thier foolishness of buys at an inflated price. This won't stop me putting in offers at 50% of the asking price, even if it is against the advice of the estate agent who is trying to hold the prices up in the area.

I say now is the time to buy at 50% of asking price, and if you get 1 in 10 accepting your offer so be it, the other 19 will get the the same price in 6 months anyway.

if you've got some cash in the bank and are in the market for a house then go for it, you've got nothing to loose.

p.s. once the actual sold prices are published with land registry, the surveyers will start driving the price, as the estate agent still try and fool the market.

Happy hunting

Ravi S, Birmingham,

Noone will pay today`s price for a house knowing that in a few weeks it could be thousands lower.

MR R J JONES, Leicester, Leicestershire