THE archetype of “property porn” is a Georgian townhouse, painstakingly maintained but also kitted out with every modern convenience, a blend of Gaggenau kitchen appliances and Farrow & Ball-painted original cornices. But some people’s pulses race at the sight of an empty house – Georgian, Edwardian, Modernist, whatever – in need a thorough makeover. The scope for such feelings is now considerable. There are 840,000 empty properties in Britain, to be found in smart and scruffy neighbourhoods. The derelict house on an otherwise spruced-up street is a familiar sight. Some properties included in the empty dwellings figures are new-build flats, purposely left untenanted. But most have suffered years of neglect, usually at the hands of their local authority owners.

There is a growing sense that these properties should provide some of the solution to the housing shortage, providing affordable homes for first-time buyers and others. It is, after all, kinder to the environment to refurbish an old property than build new homes on green-belt land. Last week’s Autumn Budget seemed to promote this strategy. Local authorities will receive the same reward via the Housing and Planning Delivery Grant for bringing an old terrace back to life as for building a flat on a new estate.

But the perverse incentives that ensure that so many properties remain empty will continue for the moment, although it is under review. The private owners of such homes may still receive a 50 per cent council tax discount.

The Autumn Budget changes would seem to provide little incentive to buy and fix up an empty wreck. But councils can decide how to spend their cash. They may look kindly on an application for funds from an individual who has fallen for a home that has fallen on hard times.

BACKGROUND

• Opening bids - Is it Christmas already? Tell Santa to break out a rate cut without further delay?

• Which economists will win the contest to be the gloomiest over the future for prices?

• Which camp are you in - storm clouds or showers? Even the experts are split

• Opening bids - a year in property

BACKGROUND

• Opening bids: Why the Government must do something about Britain’s empty properties

• Will there be a rate cut before Christmas? Kate Barker knows - but she’s not telling

• Downturn and downtown in 2008: how investors in UK city-centre flats may feel the chill first

• Opening bids

Sub-prime slime is oozing out everywhere from the US -where will it spread next?

BACKGROUND

• Comment: The housing shortage

• Ripple effect from Belgravia to the suburbs

• Comment: the property market slowdown

• Tax perks for a few are adding to the property have-nots’ sense of injustice, but don’t expect reform any time soon

• This was not a timely retreat. What does the government now mean to do to save the planet?

The silencing of our Mr Spocks

Our public administration has specialised in low-level, chronic inefficiency with a counterpoint of big talk

BACKGROUND

• Average prices in the South are 1.59 times higher than the North

• The City’s ardour for status homes remains unabated

• The dawn of a more eco-conscious Britain may be delayed

• It's bonus time, let the stampede begin

• Prices and politics either side of the border

Hips will make us greener, or so the Government says

• Hips have already won hearts and minds and will make us all greener, or so the Government says

BACKGROUND

• Mortgage competition makes millions immune to base-rate moves

• Hidden costs of a place in the sun

• Primark Principle revises gloomy views

• Going green is not cheap

As in all affairs of the heart, a little boldness can pay off; you will not necessarily be disqualified on grounds of income. You will also enjoy the warm feeling that your new neighbours will be in your debt: homes next door to empty derelict properties sell for an average of 18 per cent less than similar homes elsewhere.

SLOWDOWN OR SLUMP?

Most of the 15 (it’s a crowded sector) regular UK house price surveys continue to forecast slowdown or stagnation. But the view from Washington is bleaker. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting a US-style slump for the UK market.

Among other things, its gurus point to the performance of house prices since 1997: the average house price is up over the past decade from £68,777 to £198,898. They contend that just 60 per cent of this increase can be justified by such factors as rising incomes: there is no explanation for the other 40 per cent, suggesting a state of delusion and potential for a correction. In short, the market is like a cartoon character that steps off a cliff and starts to fall only when he realises that he is walking on air.

At the same time, the IMF’s experts concede that their analysis contains “considerable uncertainties”. These include factors that have boosted and should continue to support prices, such as the shortage of homes and demand from immigrant workers.

Even the gloomiest UK commentators could not be won over to the IMF’s pessimism. Sub-prime lending is the principal cause of the US market’s woes: borrowers with poor credit records were given loans they could not repay and are now finding their homes being repossessed. Sub-prime lenders also flourish in the UK and their customers are more vulnerable to repossession than other homebuyers.

But this is a small-scale business compared with the giant US sub-prime industry. Its watchdogs also seem to have been not in the least concerned about its activities. For the sake of the health of our housing market, we hope that our watchdogs are being more vigilant.

HAVE PRICES GONE UP IN SMOKE?

The smoking ban has produced several lifestyle changes. People who like a cigarette have now become the outsiders, lurking around the entrances of offices, or standing by pub doors, whatever the weather. A few are “smirting”, that is flirting while smoking, while others are shouting to make themselves heard over the hubbub. In the commercial districts of city centres these congregations can lend an agreeable whiff of café society to streets that used to fall silent every evening. But in residential areas these crowds can seem more like riotous assemblies, producing noise and litter.

As a result, it is becoming harder to sell a house close to a pub or bar. North London estate agents say that such proximity can reduce a price by as much as £50,000. This presents the opportunities for property bargains, provided you can shrug your shoulders at cigarette butts tossed into your front garden and the sleepless nights that come from intoxicated youths singing She’s So Lovely or some other current hit at the top of their voices outside your bedroom window.

anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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