Dispirited owners trapped in homes that would not sell, aghast at the near-doubling of their mortgage repayments. Such was the mood of the housing market in the slump of the early 1990s. This was a period characterised by rows between lovers who had bought homes together to benefit from double mortgage tax relief (withdrawn in 1988) and who then found themselves incompatible - and in negative equity.

It is too early to typify the mood of the slowdown, although one thing is certain - homebuyers are as angry today as they were in 1990; not over the shortcomings of their cohabiting partners but at the conduct of the banks.

The adverse consequences for every homeowner of the banking industry's involvement in sub-prime debt were yet again made clear this week with First Direct's decision to halt all mortgage lending to new customers. Other major names, including Cheltenham & Gloucester, the Royal Bank of Scotland and its subsidiary NatWest, have also either withdrawn deals or raised their rates.

Now the once bountiful Halifax could be the next bank that likes to say no, no, no. The time that lenders must stay in rehab to recover from their sub-prime indiscretions and past addiction to massive loan-to-income multiples for less than creditworthy customers seems set to be far longer than anyone had expected.

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

The result of the banks' indiscretions is a shortage of loan offers but it would be wrong to describe this as a famine. It is still possible to obtain finance. But your application will take longer and the repayments will cost you more, whatever happens to the bank base rate next week, and even if you have considerable equity in your current home.

Forward planning is also a necessity: Melanie Bien, of Savills Private Finance, the mortgage brokers, suggests that if your fixed rate expires in six months' time, you should consider reserving a new deal now. Do not suppose that the cost of borrowing will, by some miracle, be lower by the late summer.

In your new grovelling, supplicant status, you may feel even more resentful at the price you are being forced to pay for the banks' conduct. But listening to the wisdom of those with experience of the slowdown of the 1990s is a better use of your emotional energy. Peter Mackie, of Property Vision, the buying agent, recommends a frank assessment of the attractions of your property; do not try to sell if it is “secondary” (a nice euphemism).

If you are trading up from a property with above average looks, acknowledge that it is probably worth less than a year ago, as this will also be true of the home you wish to buy. These are two of the simple but vital lessons you can learn from past property downturns. Shame that the banks did not care to heed any of them.

THE CREAM OF THE CROP

Neither plane nor car noise can be heard, but the motorway is close by, with easy access to London. There are no nasty farmyard smells, yet the house is surrounded by verdant (archaic vocabulary is a must) acres with protected views. There should be a lake, ideally.

The house must be architecturally and historically significant, allowing copies of Pevsner to be positioned in the guest bedrooms, but too much antiquity can be odious. A Grade I listing prohibits extensive makeover projects.

These sometimes contradictory requirements for the perfect rural pile mean that it is a rare commodity. As a result, the very few Queen Anne or Georgian rectories and manor houses from other eras that comply with the necessary criteria are proving to be almost immune to the cooling of the market. Such is the demand for trophy houses that a few are selling for more than their asking price: a Gloucestershire pad on the market recently for £5 million fetched £8 million.

In the first quarter of this year, the average price of a prime country house (a category that includes trophy homes and those blighted by sillage stench) slipped by 0.5 per cent, against 1.1 per cent for the market as a whole. But as the graph below indicates, the pace of the prime country sector has been less excitable for the past decade, forming a curve akin to the rolling hillside on which the purchaser of a perfect rural pile aspires to gaze.

Click here to see town versus country prime property prices over the past ten years

ARE YOU A SUPERCOMMUTER?

The results of Bricks and Mortar's Supercommuter survey were so engrossing a read that I nearly missed my stop on my own Tube commute to The Times' offices in Wapping. The cost of housing is the major reason why so many of the respondents accept several hours every day on public transport (not surprising) but many see their journey as time for reflection, a break between office politics and domestic chores. If commuting is the downtime in your day or the high price you pay to live in an affordable location, share your experiences in our online survey at timesonline.co.uk/supercommuter.

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