UK wealth based on City trading is no longer sustainable. I agree with P Fordham comments : "the only things that create wealth are: Manufacturing, Farming, Fishing, Mining, & Tourism, the UK has destroyed all of those industries". Not City playing casino can ensure UK wealth on the long run...

Michael J, Aix en Provence, France

Labour policy makers will now have to look at schemes that actually create value in the economy rather than rely on consumers arbitrarily revaluing homes each year to create income. Interestingly the worlds most competitive economy (Economist) also has the lowest property prices in Europe - Finland.

Nick Bromley, Bromley, UK

It may be painful for some but it could be for the best. Thrift is becoming popular again. The economy will cease to depend on pointless consumption and speculative finance. Where is the bad news in that? Where will the jobs come from? Renewables and micro generation?

sheila, Leicester,

UTV reported we now have a property developer offering buy one get one free in N. Ireland. Too many people have forgotten the bad days or are too young to remember them. When people have no money they cant buy anything.

Paddy, Belfast, N. Ireland

You can not blame the Sub Prime debacle on the Labour Government far be it from me to stick up for them and when you see what happens to food prices in the next few months you will understand

Peter K, Vancouver BC., Canada

Thanks Maggie I am not going to 'liquidate' the house I bought nine years ago, and upon which I do not owe a penny, on the grounds that I still need somewhere to live. You see we are not all mortgaged up to our eyeballs. If George is correct with a 45% drop, no worries, I can live with that.

Paul, Coventry,

It's time to sell overvalued sterling and euros and buy cheap greenbacks while the price lasts.

Dave, Boulder City, USA

Just another market which Labour have interfered in and its crashed. They cannot tax us when we have nothing.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

The UK housing market will fall by 45% by 2010 according to major US banks. All buyers should stay on the sidelines and wait for the sellers to lose their shirts.

George, London, UK

England is doomed. The economy will be MUCH worse than the US. I work for a major city trader and my bosses are liquidating all their UK assets. If you own property in the UK, sell now!

Maggie, London, UK

John in Manchester,
Thankyou, it's refreshing to see some unbiased information from someone who truly knows what is happening to house prices.
As if we can trust anything we are told by the banks.....or the media for that matter!

steven pill, Bedale,

And Brown and Darling stand up their lying through there teeth when they say that Britain and its economy is well placed to weather any credit crisis. In view of its enormous debts, Britain is the worst placed of vertually any one.

Chris, Woodbridge, suffolk

I bought my house 35 years ago with a building society 25 yr. variable rate mortgage. No brokers and, generally, the banks were not in that market so no one paid "arrangement fees", a euphanism for commission now paid to the plethora of brokers. I never changed the payment and it was settled on time

AWilliams, Cradley,

Ann,

Today is, indeed, different than the early 1990s. However, house prices crashed in 1989 the last time so you are comparing the early stages of asset price contraction with a period during which they were entrenched.

Trevor, Romsey,

Silly Socialists raise Stamp Duty - no wonder the brakes a doubly on, not to mention silly HIPS

jane shepard, cambridge, UK

The Vegas comparison is utterly specious. They have built miles of indentikit "tract" housing out in the desert, some of it behind a wall all of 20 ft off the main LA-Vegas freeway. Who would want that at any price? The comparison is a cheap scare, not a valuable opinion.

Peter, Cirencester,

Everybody says the house prices are going down.BUT when you go out in the market, the sellers in Birmingham are not realistic and not even considering to decrease the price by a few thousand. And what about these estate agents- why arent they realistic? or else they risk closing their shops.

M Kamal, Birmingham, West midlands

House prices in the UK are higher than anywhere and the quality of the housing stock is, by developed nation standards, the worst. It can only be for the long-term economic and social good if prices correct lower.

Steve, London,

The market has seized up: Looks like transactions are down by about 75 percent.

In my postcode there were 19 property sales in March against 1200 for the whole of 2007.

The reason is clear : a brick box that costs £50K to build costs £200K to buy.

Pedro, Stratford,

Minimal Recovery will take 3 to 5 years. No hope for anything this year or next. Commercial property is crashing now which is the next big problem for the banks. Its going to be worse than the credit crunch for them.

Things are getting very bad.... US Depression 1929 keeps going around in my head.

Amanda, Lancaster, Lancashire

Uk may fall. London will stay strong. All coments are from outside London except 1. Understand there are to many people and they need somewhere to live. BTL investors will buy and rent. FTB will buy the bargain. Prices will NOT drop in London just staythe same. This happens every 2-3 years.

adam, London,

Brown and Darling contend that the UK economy is well insulated against the global squeeze, will fare well and be hit least. The financial experts, commentators and forecasters predict the exact opposite.
Can't wait to see who's right! Let's see what the country thinks at local election level today

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

Well I still believe in Gordon Brown. He HAS put an end to boom and bust. Oh and I must check on those fairies at the end of the garden.

Andrew Piercy, London, England

Possibly there are two kinds of forecasters commenting on the crunch. Those who have some sort of stake in talking it up, such as building societies and the government, and those who have no particular stake such as economic forecasters.

ChrisStuart, Carantan, France

With regard to Trevor's comment: The BoE's remit is to manage CPI, which does not include mortgage costs. There was therefore never a real incentive to reign in the housing boom. The government's decision to split the inflation measures into CPI and RPI certainly contributed to the whole problem.

Steffen, Bristol,

Economic disaster movies? Where is the fun in watching people suffer losses? The problem is that a swift and sharp and sustained correction in house prices will affect most people badly, and may give rise to job losses on a huge scale. Plan A's failure may seem funny, but where is Plan B in UKPLC?

John Pownall, Bridport,

Find youself a nice comfy chair,indulge in a big tub of popcorn
and settle down to watch the UK PLC economy fall to pieces.
And I defy anyone arguing the contrary.

antony Graham, southport, England

So much for Gord and Alistair telling us that 'the fundamentals of the UK economy are sound.' No they're not. House prices need to fall, but we are heading for a slump. The US Fed Reserve has just given American's a large tax rebate to kick start the economy; any chance of that happening here?

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

maybe the "mortgage deals in the past" should never have been available in the first place? who will pay for Labour's bloated bureaucracy now? what will all the health and safety officers do?

andrew, cape town,

I've had a look at property in London (ie. one bed flat) since all the talk on gloom and doom started and nothing has changed.
Does anybody think prices in London have gone down? I certainly don't!

Maria, London,

They are on the one hand crying foul that without cuts we are all doomed. And on the other they are saying we will be fine.
The BoE's remit is inflation only. If house prices were not inflationary when rising at 20%, how is it saying they are deflationary wih a 3% fall?

Trevor, South east,

For the past 25 years the UK has been outsourcing it's wealth creation to Asia which leaves it unable to repay the enormous debt burden. The only things that create wealth are: Manufacturing, Farming, Fishing, Mining, & Tourism, the UK has destroyed all of those industries.

Peter Fordham, Pego, Spain

I value property in the Northwest and am of the opinion that:
Buy to let flats are down 25% and owner occupied houses by 10%. And if you want it to sell within two months knock another 5% off.

None of this has really filtered through to the ‘managed statistics’ yet, but it will

John, Manchester,

Hi,
The crunch; We are getting conflicting information. Some Americans say the worst is over. Others say there is more to come. I thick the root of the problem is banks not being transparent.
Regards Dr. Terence Hale.

Terence Hale, zandvoort, Holland

The bonus culture in banks is mirrored by a credit culture with consumers. For mortgages that suggests a 25% deposit and repayments of only 2 /2 times of ONE salary.
That'll sort it out and house prices will rocket downwards to a more affordable level

john steel, hemingford, uk

Ann, of course Nationwide are going to underplay this and say it's different to the 1990's housing crash but It is, it's worse, far worse.

Home prices in America have fallen up to 22% (Las Vegas) in the last year and the end if still not in sight and we have a higher LTV than the US

Richard Cooke, Ipswich,

Its worse than the early 90's.At least their was state help with the mortgage if you lost your job.Think there are plenty of jobs going around,maybe true,but will £10 and hour pay those huge mortgages?

stephen hulton, eure, france

The city has been the driver of UK economy. Some city people like us, sold up and left, some lost their jobs and moved away and more will lose their jobs.... The impact to the economy will be huge. I wouldn't bother to read 3rd tier economists' comments from nationwide on UK housing market.

sabola, Toronto, Canada

I'd suggest readers look at the Nationwide report itself - in which the aforementioned chief economist explains why the market fundamentals of the UK today make it so DIFFERENT from the early 1990's. It also explain that the impact of the credit crunch on mortgage holders is overstated.

Ann, london,

Too little, too late. Sit back and watch the show.

Sage, Macclesfield,

It seems that the MPC will get critisism whatever it does to interest rates because house prices will fall anyway.

The pound is quite low enough against a basket of other currencies to give our exporters an advantage.

It should now be there goal to preserve what GBP strength is left.

David, Marlow, Bucks

Time will tell how the UK property market will play out.
One fact however cannot be ignored, and that is the fact that average house prices in the UK are eight times the average wage.
The highest multiple in the Western World.
To use an Americanism "Do the math"

Allan, Inverness,