It'll cost you. £240,000 to be precise. At least that's what somebody has just paid for a Lansdowne Road lock-up. Okay, it's a double garage, it comes with the freehold, and power, but still... Apparently, it joined the market at £140,000, and then a bidding war broke out amongst the neighbours. It's a London record, and the Rat and Mouse would like to congratulate Savills on a job well done. More, including a picture, here.

Remember, back in June, we reported on the launch of an interesting new internet trading facility for shares in buy-to-let properties? Opromark allows investors to purchase shares for as little as one pound - with rent and capital gain then being divided up pro rata. The news this morning is that the company has just made its first sale - a one-bedroom terrace cottage in the Leeds suburb of Horsforth, which sold to 65 different investors, and is now known as LS184JZ1 - a company with tradable shares. As a means of getting some action on a limited budget, or reducing the risk of investment in a single property and a single area, it made sense to us then, and (even considering the substantial fees) it makes sense to us now.

It cost £12,000 - according to this piece of time-wasting gossip. The important parts of the story are that it's a six-seater, it includes a champagne bucket, he wants it on his London roof terrace, but he might not get planning permission. We want to know... would you object to the sight of Craig David and lovelies soaking and splashing? Answers on an email, please.

Already, skilled people in Greater London such as bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers and carpenters have seen their pay shoot up. Kurt Calder of the Construction Confederation said: 'For those prepared to work hard, there is the chance to earn £50,000, £60,000 or £70,000 a year.'

Jeez, that's almost as much as a London property blogger earns. And I don't get a tanned arse-cleavage (even sitting with my back to the window... ). ThisIsMoney reports here on a brickie skills shortage that is only going to get more serious as we approach 2012. All this might go some way to explaining why British homes apparently need £48 billion in repairs if they're to be decent. According to the Halifax, one in four British homes are currently non-decent... an expression I've instantly fallen in love with, and intend to use as soon as possible.

Overall, it is estimated that it would cost £48bn to bring all properties in England up to basic standards - the equivalent of £7,200 per home.

It's so skinny you (probably) couldn't lie down in it sideways. It's on the Goldhawk Road. It's listed at £525,000. It used to belong to Juergen Teller (so there's a good chance some beautiful stick insects chain-smoked there). And a senior estate agent at Winkworths, Shepherd's Bush, once partied there like it was 1991:

"It's a fantastic entertaining space and I've been lucky enough to have been to a party there in the early 90s - it went on for four days."

Those are the facts. Here's the house. Here's some more info, courtesy of the BBC.

Clerkenwell House - second bite at the cherry [July 26]

It's shaping up for a right royal freeze-out in Hampstead, with even Forbes reporting on the most expensive neighbours-from-hell story in a while. It appears that steel zillionaire Lakshmi Mittal isn't taking at all kindly to plans by neighbour Saudi Arabian Princess Samerah bint Mokhtar al-Saadawy to build a huge luxury development of 12 apartments behind his second home on The Bishop's Avenue. One of the problems is that all 12 balconies will overlook his "Summer Palace" garden. But Mittal's objection to the council is that the plans fail to "preserve or enhance local character". The development has been described as "in the style of an English country manor" (except with 12 apartments, swimming pools and secure car parking). Oh yeah, and "evolving, post-modern, neo-Jacobean". So we can't think where he got that idea. Nevertheless, the plans have - as things stand - been passed.

For sale: £50 million on Bishop's Avenue [May 11]

It is now. There's bizarre news courtesy of the BBC about an abrupt change of direction for TV comic and THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER presenter Nick Hancock, who is turning his back on a successful TV career to become marketing director for a mortgage broker. More, here.

Are you cool enough for shell and core? According to Lisa Freedman, writing in today's Times, the opportunity to buy a property in a totally unfinished state is becoming a thing of the past for anybody except the ultra-rich. Us scruffy ordinary people... first of all, we're confused by the space... we tend to underestimate the square footage when it's still just a shell... we don't have the vision to see it complete, and the lenders just don't trust us. If you're rolling in money, however, shell and core is a cool alternative to being told what to like by a developer. The piece mentions a semi-detached shell in Hampstead, presented by Regime Development, that sold for £3.5 million; before inevitably getting into Candy & Candy's 21 Manresa Road development in Chelsea, where the specification doesn't extend far beyond license plate recognition (to operate the car park security gates) and air conditioning. Speaking of Manresa Road... anybody got the inside scoop on who's set to move in?

Channel 4 News's sorely-missed ex-political editor Elinor Goodman gets her knuckles rapped in the Telegraph, today? Why? As the new chairman of the Affordable Rural Homes Commission, she's investigating a possible ban on second homes in rural areas. Rural areas like Oare in Wiltshire, where Goodman has her house, as opposed to her flat in SW1. I guess this is the kind of thing that happens when poacher turns gamekeeper.

Now you're talking. US music magazine Blender (and one of my old employers before I became a bricks-and-mortar-stalker) have been chatting to epic religio-rapper Kanye West, and it seems the man is considering a move to London:

Future plans: "I think I'm gonna move to London," "Get a fake-ass British accent like Madonna."

I don't know why I'm so excited. But what's with the Madonna reference? Does Madonna's accent really sound British to American ears? More fun, here.

Andrew Lowe, of Direct Line, said: "A strong economy, warming climate and a regenerated urban landscape are the key factors set to make Britain more attractive than ever as a second home location."

The morning's papers have picked up on a document circulated by Direct Line, which suggests there's going to be a 24% (24%, note, not 25%... after all, this is science) increase in the number of people with second homes in the UK. A significant proportion of these second homes will be bought by parents for students and then later converted into a pension. Meanwhile, the students will have to wait another 30 years before they can get on the property ladder, because of the effect all these second home purchases will have on house prices. More, here.

Over at the Channel 4 4 homes forum, they're debating what a landlord should do now that he suspects his flat's being used by a prostitute. Should he kick her out? Now that he's made it public that he suspects how the flat's being used, is he liable for an immoral earnings rap? Should he, as one C4 poster suggests, install a hidden webcam? If you don't have a log in over there, write to us with your advice and we'll facilitate a collective post by Rat and Mouse readers.

Today's FT carries an interesting analysis of the state of play in the house price spread-betting market. There's been a shift toward optimism, apparently, with the spread reacting to betting and moving upwards. This might at first look like an indication of people responding to the recent rate cut and actually betting on price rises... but hold on:

Pete McDermott, head of options at IG Index, says the more positive outlook is mainly down to significant numbers of bears exiting the spread betting market.

"Our clients think house prices have stabilised a bit," he says. "Three or four months ago people were closing their positions and many were forced to swallow moderate losses as the downturn in reality was not as bad as had been predicted."

There's nothing like a relatively stagnant market to spoil a spread-better's fun. Elsewhere in the FT Friederike Tiesenhausen Cave (and if that isn't the coolest name...) writes about a sneaky little growth spurt at the top end of the London market. Apparently, properties in Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster are doing so well - partly from all that fabulous Middle Eastern wealth generated by the current oil prices - estate agents are daring to whisper the word growth. The full story on the other side of this link.

First off - a huge apology for the recent unreliability of the Rat and Mouse's email addresses. If you wrote to us in the last fortnight and we didn't reply... we really weren't being deliberately rude. Now - thanks to a little corrective surgery by the ever-wonderful Tag4 - we're guaranteed to read your message. So, please, try us again... here for tips, here for me, here for advertising or if you want to know more about the Rat and Mouse's influential readership.

That's right. And coffee's good for the stomach. Eggs are good for the heart. Excessive masturbation doesn't give you RSI if you invest in a Carpal Mate. The Olympics are the subject of a press release, today, by the Conservative Party. Apparently, anything we hope to make from an increase in house prices, we're going to have to spend in a huge and permanent hike in the council tax. More, here. Meanwhile, over at Reuters, we're told not to get too down on our endowment mortgages. According to a leading financial advisor, the poor communication that characterised the selling of endowments in the first place has merely carried on over into the distribution of "traffic light" warning letters, with different projections being made based on entirely different values:

Lakey [the IFA] maintains that the FSA's consumer website gives advice to consumers based on a false premise. It explains that falling projection rates are because funds are invested mainly in shares.

He goes on to point out, "the 2005 endowment update showed average equity content in with profits life funds at 41% and some funds held no equities at all". The message appears to be... don't be panicked into drastic action without having your own policy examined first. More, here.

... over at the HousePriceChat forum, where the idea of somebody selling at the top and then renting while awaiting the crash (sell-to-rent) has made somebody else lose the power of rational thought:

The STRs are living in a fools paradise if they think they have done well by selling their house and moving into rent because they may have gained on the swings but they have lost on the roundabouts and the STRs now find themselves in an uncertain situation where their STR fund money is earning little interest and is being continually eroded by inflation and the STRs are facing a long period of staying in rented accommodation, paying dead money in rent which is helping to pay off their landlord's mortgage.

The STRs are also finding that they cannot get as much pussy as they used to when they were home owners because slappers don't like rent forever losers and they prefer to give oral sex on guys who are home-owners...

If the last point's from an official Council of Mortgage Lenders survey then it's not one I can find.

The news provider talked to 24 leading economists between August 15 and 17, to get the latest snapshot of the British housing market. Growth predictions are down to 1%, and there was an 11% probability of a crash (the figures ranged from 5% to a very alarmist 25%) in the next year. They defined "crash" as a drop of more than 10% in 12 months. Read more, here.

Arsenal season ticket with that, sir? [August 16]

... a quarter of us couldn't afford to pay him, according to a survey by the Alliance & Leicester. Apparently people are selling household goods or borrowing money in order to have a faulty appliance fixed, so low are household savings. Interestingly:

The research found that women are the least prepared for a basic household emergency, with more than a third (35%) saying that they have struggled to pay for emergencies in the past, compared to a quarter (26%) of men. Furthermore, just under half of all women (46%) admitted to having less than £200 spare to cover the cost of a household breakdown, compared to 28% of men.

If you'd taken a stab at those figures, wouldn't you have assumed they'd be the other way around? Anyway, read more, here.

Direct Line recommends... insurance! [August 4]

First it was Dickens & Jones, now ThisIsMoney reports on the imminent departure of another much-loved London department store. Barkers is going... leaving the residents of Kensington with a journey to Knightsbridge if they find themselves in need of expensive French kitchenware or a Crombie coat. Expect, apparently, a giant American health food shop to take its place. But, in the north west, the news is better. According to this, Brent Cross is to get London's second Apple Store. Why's that good? Okay, I'm biased (the Rat and Mouse is produced on one of a number of Macs in my own little Mac Museum), but the Apple Store on Regent Street is about as entertaining an experience as any computer store could be (and the best place to go for a bit of free WiFi).

Hey, sportsfans, how about this for a view? You're looking at Oval Mansions in Kennington - some one- and two-bedroom apartments priced between £350,000 and £495,000, and featured by FindAProperty today:

Their real selling point is the wonderful views over the Oval cricket ground. The more you spend, the better the view, although there are great views to be had from the communal terrace, too, says the agent Atkinson McLeod.

And as FindAProperty is right to point out, the timing couldn't better. Find some particulars on the other side of this link.

A report by the Halifax into student accommodation costs names London as the most expensive place for a student to live, with an average weekly rent of £79. I don't now about you - but I'm surprised the figure's so low. Perhaps it includes Royal Holloway, which - as we all know - isn't really in London. Or maybe it's all those young people who rent out in the sticks, and travel into town for lectures and tutorials on old fashioned bicycles, their philosophy and classics texts in handlebar baskets... More, here.

Everyday a new story ratchets up the pain of being an estate agent; and today it's about the threat from the internet. According to first4sale, by 2010, up to 50% of house sales will take place over the internet:

"In the Noughties Sell it Yourself is giving people the freedom and skills to sell their own property, saving themselves thousands of pounds."

Now, saying that "up to 50%" of transactions will take place online isn't so courageous, it's simply saying that 2010 will see any figure up to and including 50%. Like, er, now, in fact (6%). And, clearly, first4sale has something of a stake in this story. But we've already seen how no- or low-fee internet sales sites have started to rattle a beleaguered estate agency sector. Interestingly, it's London that leads the new trend, with 81% of respondents apparently saying they'd consider cutting out the agent and selling online. More on the story, here. Meanwhile, the Guardian have just come up with a guide to e-selling your home. Find it here.

Countrywide reports trouble, estate agents bite nails [August 12]
These are estate agents [August 10]

It's a real story. Despite the fact that floor- and wall-coverings are very much back in fashion, Britain's biggest carpet retailer announced a 7% slump in sales. Apparently, it's terrorism that's to blame.

An interesting report has just appeared on the Joseph Rowntree social research website warning that neighbourhood information sites (they like to call the phenomenon IBNIS - Internet-Based Neighbourhood Information Systems) might contribute to lifestyle-gaps and social ghettoisation, as privileged computer-users get the (often quite vindictive - see the Rat and Mouse on the subject of Hackney) social lowdown on a 'hood. The report points to American technology, which is apparently producing highly detailed zip code-based social data, and which might be coming our way soon. But was there ever really a time when London home buyers didn't do some kind of social class research? Before the internet - wasn't that what gossip was for? And doesn't a site like UpMyStreet just speed the process up, and negate a few journeys? And, more to the point, is there really a moral justification for making information about local schools, crime statistics etc harder to unearth? We'd love to hear your views.

To stay grounded. Obviously.

If you're not doing anything tomorrow, there's still time to check out a bargain, courtesy of Stern Studios. It's in Russell Court in Bloomsbury, in one of those solid 1930s blocks managed by the residents. It measures 16 by 12 (not bad for a London studio), includes a little hallway (which seems to somehow psychologically separate the studio flat from the hotel room), a decent-sounding bathroom and kitchen, and a 99-year lease. And it's on at £150,000 - which, for that location, is good. If you're interested, go here and scroll down.

We have to recommend this well-written summation of the London market courtesy of Bloomberg. Among a number of interesting features, there's the first intrusion into Mervyn King's residential privacy I, for one, have encountered. They've managed to get an address for the BoE head - he apparently bought a two-bedroom flat in Notting Hill in June 1989 - and take it to OurProperty for some forensic valuation. He is said to have paid £320,000; the article suggests neighbours are looking at roughly £1 million when they put comparative properties on the market. Overall, the article paints a picture of a stultified London market - with homebuilders in particular acting desperate. Amongst the recent bribes, the article mentions Arsenal season tickets over at Wimpey/Taylor Woodrow's slow-shifting Vision 7 complex. Inevitable, the exception is east and south east London, where the Olympic adrenaline shot is kicking in nicely.

Here's a revealing piece, courtesy of the Sun, about Sharon Stone's stoic reaction to the London bombings last month:

The actress, 47, quit her luxurious £4,000-a-week, four-bedroom apartment in Belgravia after the failed terrorist attacks on July 21 to stay at Sir Elton's £7 million estate in Windsor, Berkshire... The movie star's London landlord, Peter Lukas, said his famous tenant continued living at Sir Elton's estate until filming finished at the end of July, but the film company ended the lease only on August 3. "They continued to lease the premises but she didn't want to return to central London," he said. "I was led to believe that she considered that she was physically at risk."

It was a bit of a near-miss. Once, she'd actually looked out of her limo window and seen a toob station.

It was a fall of -0.2% between July 10 and August 6, according to Rightmove, with the annual inflation rate at just 2.1%. It's the familiar story, more houses on estate agents' books, taking longer to shift (currently an average of 72 days). There's some commentary from Reuters here. For a copy of the actual report, go here, and click to download the pdf.

... from a five-year study into the way we live by the RICS. Rooms are getting smaller. And that's primarily because we want more of them... ensuites, media rooms, utility rooms. You see, we talk talk about knocking through, but we live in dolls' houses. We like loft conversions. And if you live in London you know that already. We should, however, be careful about who we use to facilitate the conversions. (I happen to know of one "leading London loft converter" who specialises in taking colossal deposits and then failing to make a reappearance.) Email me if you're about to sign on the dotted line and feel nervous. We aspire to a four-bedroom detached home with a garage. But we're unlikely to live in one. More, here

Countrywide are reporting that they've sold a third fewer houses in the first six months of this year than the same period in 2004 and the residential estate agency wing announced their first operating losses (£6.5 million, no less) in a decade. Managing director Harry Hill has suggested that, if the flat market continues, up to a tenth of the UK's 11,000 estate agents could find themselves without keys to jangle (what are the chances of that happening, eh? eh?). More, here. If you're an estate agent reading this (and we know a significant number of you are), don't, whatever you do, visit the Anorak.

It's started. According to the latest Haarts figures reported in FindAProperty, average London house prices dropped -0.1% in July, but with huge regional variation. North London, for example, dropped -4.7%. The Olympic regeneration region, however, managed gains of up to 5% (Newham - developers have a nose for these things).

Olympic effect may reach Dagenham [July 28]
Olympics go nuclear [July 15]

In an interesting piece in ThisIsMoney, Mira Bar-Hillel thinks she's spotted a trend. If there are fewer first-time buyers and more people renting for longer... it's because they want to. In a move toward the metropolitan rent-culture you see in Paris, Manhattan and other major cities, young professionals are placing central location and proximity to their friends before security, and putting off house purchase until they can buy something bigger further out of town. The piece is based on new research, which tells us: most of the young renters polled intended to rent until they were in their 30s; 80% had negative feelings about a big financial commitment; a third chose renting because it meant they could live with or closer to their friends.

First-time buyers - it's all their own fault [July 1]

Honestly, I'm not kidding. Except, they're not London estate agents... they're Manhattan estate agents and, we suspect you'll agree, a different breed. The photographs appear courtesy of Curbed, the Rat and Mouse's favourite property weblog not including the Rat and Mouse. And these lovelies are all competing in Curbed's First Annual Broker Boys & Babes Contest - a kind of estate agent beauty contest, voted on by Curbed readers. So, what do you think? A London equivalent? Like... a competition for the most colossal estate agent tie-knot? Most pungent estate agent aftershave? Craziest estate agent ringtone? Seriously... if your estate agent makes your knees weak, we want to hear about it.

Catching up on our friends at Londonist yesterday revealed this fascinating story about London's own South East Asian mafia drug fields - otherwise known as Newham. Apparently, with as many as 82 cannabis factories discovered locally since April, Newham Vice has appealed to locals to go out and sniff the air for skunk.

A special Empty Homes Team is about to take lax landlords to task, in a borough late to the housing boom but currently suffering a shortage of available properties:

Hackney Council says some derelict houses, in affluent areas like De Beauvoir Town, can be worth £500,000.

I wonder if they'll still be saying that if they go the compulsory purchase route. According to this, they believe there are as many as 250 empty homes in the area.

A couple of house price surveys - from the Land Registry and the ODPM - continue to point to a "flatlining" market. Apparently, buyers are sitting on their hands, sellers are twiddling their thumbs, and estate agents are doing both at the same time. More, courtesy of the BBC, here. Elsewhere, FindAProperty highlights the threat to the great British terraced house. A once mighty institution - allowing a man to crawl through the loft space and sleep with his neighbour's wife, or burn the couple living four doors down to a complete crisp by falling asleep with a cigarette in his mouth and lighting his own toupee - is being steadily bulldozed to make way for inferior construction. You'd think we'd be safe, in London, though. The full story, on the other side of this link.

We've driven another one out. News broke over the weekend that Liam Gallagher and Nicole Appleton have had enough of the constant prying and intrusion that comes with north London celebrity life. They're clearing off - for the time being, to a mansion in Great Dunmow, Essex, owned by Nicole's sister Natalie and the Prodigy's Liam Howlett.

The advice to house viewers might seeming blindingly obvious ("Will the general layout of the house work for you? Is the property centrally heated? etc), but there's a very surprising fact right at the start of this guide to house viewing courtesy of FindAProperty. Most people buy a house having spent no more than twenty minutes on a viewing.

The latest Halifax survey reports 0.2% inflation in July, up from 0.1% in June. The annual inflation figure - averaged from a three-month period up to the end of July - is down to 2.3%, its lowest since April 1996, and that's the figure getting all the press this morning:

UK housing market "still slowing" [BBC]
Further fall in UK house price inflation [FT]
House price inflation at 9-year low in July [Reuters]

Okay, it's so small you wouldn't want to fall over in it, but this studio-ette in Holland Park's cute Norland Square includes a key to the communal gardens and tennis court. It's on the first floor, and you get a little balcony, too. It's with Stern Studios. Viewings are Tuesday and Wednesday.

It's a quarter point reduction to 4.5%; and the news here is that the Halifax is leading the bunch with the first mortgage rate cut.

Apparently, the average repair bill for the average house over the average period of ownership (15 years) is a scary £17,000. But a Direct Line survey reveals that the average homeowner puts aside an average figure of £2,700 to meet unexpected repairs. Direct Line's surprising conclusion:

"To cushion the financial blow, homeowners should set aside a small amount each month to meet the cost of emergency repairs. For extra peace of mind homeowners should consider taking out insurance to cover themselves if the worst happens," concluded Direct Line's Ms Syred.

But hang on a moment, Ms Syred. If we're talking about £17,000 over 15 years, that's an average of just under £1,200 a year... suggesting that £2,700 at any one time is pretty good. So, no insurance necessary then. Read it all, here.

According to this, in the Telegraph, you wouldn't be the only stupidly confident Brit throwing credit cards in the air:

Despite rising unemployment, a recession in manufacturing, a malaise on the high street and the slowing property market, the Nationwide index of consumer confidence rose sharply in July to 101 from 95.

Yeah, let's hear it for cheap debt!

Camden Council is under fire from the borough's celebrities, who are objecting to the potential sound of untalented people drinking late into the night, once licensing hours are extended. Amongst the protesters... pianist Alfred Brendel, who lives in Well Walk, Hampstead, is concerned about the Wells Tavern; Amanda Platell is battling with the Roebuck, in Hampstead's Pond Street; Jon Snow (whom the Rat and Mouse supports as a matter of principle on any issue whatsoever) takes a dim view of late-night drinking at the Torriano in Kentish Town; and Joan Bakewell is worried about lude, drunken shenanigans concerning the Princess of Wales (the pub) in Primrose Hill.

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. With times not what they could be for London's estate agents, perhaps it's time to look Stateside in the pursuit of excellence. Just remember, though:

"Keller presents the million-dollar benchmark as a symbol of excellence, rather than a monument to materialism."

Tanya Same - founder of the Ghost label - opens her Ladbroke Grove home to Charlotte Crips in today's Independent. As you'd imagine, it sounds hip - a homely and unstudied ragtag of 20th Century design, found objects and bits of Ghost. Hey, it also has a bar - so what do we know? And just in case anybody hadn't read the Ladbroke Grove bit, and was in any doubt we're talking about west London:

There's a spiral staircase here that leads up to an attic bedroom at the top of the house, where I do yoga every morning with my yoga teacher. I've just learnt to stand on my head.

Tonight's Streets Ahead (8pm, Channel 4) features "a street of drab, grey 1930s houses in Bexleyheath". And then the Rat and Mouse's favourite property presenter arrives - all confident but polite and quietly seething. See how the residents react to a C4 4homes royal visit, and how Beeny and project manager David Flight manage to recreate the rotten row into something much more acceptable to middle class tastes. More, here. And if you want your own shabby street Beenied, try here. And finally, if you live on that no longer drab, grey street in Bexleyheath and want to send us your pics or describe the Streets Ahead experience, we'd love to hear from you.

Is there an unofficial Sarah Beeny blog? [June 21]

According to official government statistics nearly six out of 10 people defined as in poverty are homeowners.

We purchased a home almost three years ago now, and we still live hand to mouth. A brief time out of work last year almost cost us our house. There was no help from the state, and without our families help their would have been yet another property repossession from hard working people.

Look what happens when we don't have house price super-inflation to sustain us. An interesting one, isn't it? And you'll find it on the BBC News site here. Actually, it's partly a first-time buyer story, about people biting off more than they can chew, and then getting so close to the "knife-edge" with their mortgage repayments and property maintenance costs that an illness, divorce, job-loss can send them into a spiral of debt and poverty. Interestingly, the story is also a call for government help for homeowners... something that is likely to get short shrift from our friends at HousePriceCrash.com. But the readers' posts are essential reading, some of them very moving. Have a story/opinion on this? Share you thoughts.

If there's one thing we've come to rely on at the Rat and Mouse, it's estate agents making upbeat statements as the house of cards tumbles around them. So, with a rate cut likely and new pension rules poised to give house prices a boost, we were surprised by this piece in the FT, featuring a very bearish sounding residential property head at Knight Frank, predicting that it would take more than two consecutive cuts to go beyond volume and start to effect house prices.

"Even with a base rate cut to 4.25 per cent, affordability ratios are still uncomfortably high," he warned.

The article goes on to quote from this week's Savills market report, which will suggest a forthcoming slowdown in commercial housebuilding, suggesting all kinds of repercussions on Government's calls for a building boom.

Not only has demand for new homes slipped but supply is now at its strongest for years, according to his report. This mismatch could pose serious problems for developers in the years ahead unless they throttle their output, it says.

Controversial summary: houses need to remain expensive.