So when will the market 'bounce back'? And what will it look like? Will house prices necessarily rise; or will a simple return to buying-and-selling be enough? In recent weeks there have been some eye-catching statements by men and women way better qualified than me to offer predictions. The problem is that expecting an analyst to extract clues from a market in which pretty much nothing is happening is like asking a football manager to choose a team by watching an empty pitch.

Our publisher asks what the new buyers will look like, and decides they'll be wearing Blue Harbour, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.

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