Property has the power to raise the pulses of the British. A misty-eyed reaction to the sight of a good-looking piece of real estate is part of the national pysche. But property also has the power to raise the hackles.

Before next week's Budget, where property seems set to be a focus, suddenly everyone's got a view about second homes, affordable housing and suchlike - and it's not always a politically correct one. Nor it is the standpoint you would expect. Does every country dweller seethe with resentment at each urbanite with a weekend place out of town? No, actually.

The Chancellor may dwell on how his party's policies have helped key workers, such as nurses and teachers, onto the housing ladder. But the response to a Bricks and Mortar report on affordable housing indicates that there are other would-be first-time buyers resentful of what they see as preferential treatment of public sector workers.

The reader who questioned why a key worker should enjoy not only an index-linked pension but also granite work tops in the kitchen of his smart, low-cost flat was childish and churlish. But Alistair Darling should be aware there is a vocal group of would-be homeowners in private sector employment who are looking for a significant stamp duty concession.

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

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• Opening bids - a year in property

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• 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

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• 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?

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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

If Mr Darling is minded to be tough with the owners of second homes, he should also be aware that public opinion may not be what he supposes. Stuart Burgess, the Government's Rural Advocate, is opposed to the proposed cut in capital gains tax on the sale of second homes. He believes that this tax break, due to take effect next month, will make it even harder for locals to afford to buy in their own area.

A separate review into the contentious issue of rural real estate, led by Matthew Taylor, the Liberal Democrat MP, is due to announce its findings later this year. This study may even recommend that councils prevent the purchase of properties as second homes. But there has been an unexpected reaction to these pronouncements, even from villages in Cornwall and other locations in the South West where one in every 44 properties is a townie's weekend home or holiday chill-out zone.

The inhabitants of seaside towns and inland beauty spots have sprung to the defence of the local economy - boosting the second home owner whose deep wallets, fondness for gourmet rustic fare and disinclination to do his own cleaning keeps butchers' and bakers' shops open, as well as creating other jobs.

There has been more debate on the effectiveness of any government action. Barring the loaded family from Fulham from acquiring a country bolthole would only raise false hopes among those born and bred in a picturesque hamlet but unable to buy there. Excluding outsiders may deflate prices. But, as a result of the lenders' new tight-fisted policies, disappointment awaits the mortgage applicant who does not have a sizeable deposit saved.

This week Bricks and Mortar starts a new series on homes by the sea. We suspect that we will be adding yet more fuel to the second home debate. But the pictures are a treat whichever side you are on.

FLAT FACTS

One property statistic to which the Chancellor is unlikely to allude in the Budget speech is the number of new flats put up last year. For mentioning that flats accounted for half all homes built in 2007 - against just one in every seven in 2001 - would be an acknowledgement of the failure of government planning policy to provide the houses that families want, both in cities and in the countryside.

In June 2006 Bricks and Mortar gave warning of the threat that the glut of poky flats, especially in city centres, posed to the whole housing market. But the Government has preferred not to deviate from its housing density targets set in Whitehall.

If councils are to be given the right to exclude outsiders from purchasing properties, then they should also be able to determine the kind of affordable and other housing needed by the local population.

SHORT-TERM GAIN

A one-bedroom flat in Chelsea can cost as much as £1 million - which means that the lower ground floor flat pictured below in a quiet street off the Kings Road is a bargain at £145,000. However, as you suspect, there's a catch. The flat, for sale through Douglas & Gordon, has just 4 years left to run on its lease. The bill for extending the lease for a further 90 years would be about £350,000. But think of it another way: this works out at just £88 a day, cheaper than any first-class hotel in this swish neighbourhood.

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