We've heard rumours of this before, never been able to substantiate the story, but here's the Observer talking to RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf, who tells them he's encouraging some clients to consider offering compensation to buyers if the property's value falls by more than 15%. Jeez, there are so many problems with this kind of deal it's hard to know where to begin. Technically, is there a house price index that's meaningful when volume is at such a low level? The truth is, nobody knows what a house is worth from one week to the next when houses aren't being bought and sold in reasonable quantities. This kind of scenario just exacerbates differences between one location and the next, one price bracket and the next. Practically, should the price drop (and I'm presuming there's a time limit on this kind of agreement) beyond the agreed amount, how worthwhile (expensive) will it be to enforce such an agreement? Philosophically, is this kind of nanny-ing even right? Will this buyer agree to an uplift clause as well, or is it all one-way traffic? Let's hope so. I don't like this at all...

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