As in any asset price bubble, the blame lies with anyone who subscribed to the "greater fool" investment strategy - in other words, anyone who knowingly bought an overpriced house in the hope of selling it to an even greater fool later on.

In short, most of the people who've moved house in the past 6-8 years.

One can argue that banks should have cracked down hard on people who lied abut their income. Or that once one started offering incautious products, the rest should have resisted the forces of natural selection that make them follow suit. But the latter certainly would require degree of moral fibre rare indeed in business -- and an absence of litigious shareholders!

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Those who ewperienced the very hard times during the eary 1990's didnt participate in the recent boom.It was hard at the time as everybody seemed rich in 2003 -2007 but I think that many people will feel poor between 2008 and 2012 when things will get better.

stephen hulton, eure, france

Britain will be wise to replace its money and adopt the Euro.

Dan Berlinski, Geneva, Switzerland

Greed is to blame. Greed - from homeowners, prospective homeowners, the media (if only you took responsibility for your own words and the impact it has with the average Joe) but, primarily, BANKS.

And who's going to bail out these babies and their multi-million pound bonuses? Why not start with those earning between £5,500 and £17,500 a year by increasing their income tax? As an aside, don''t forget, when this credit crunch really starts to get nasty I think you'll find an awful lot of workers only too pleased to be earning that level of income.

Rob, Isle of Wight,

I agree that whoever is responsible for the falling prices needs congratulations, not blame. The idea that inflation in the cost of shelter is a benefit to society is lunatic.

Dylan, Rossendale,

It's all the fault of young first time buyers... It is their social responsibility to borrow ten times their annual earnings and more to buy one bedroom flats to keep prices rising in perpetuity....

Michael Geoffrey, Harrogate, North Yorks

Asking who is to blame for the slowdown can only be answered after the question of what is to blame has been answered. Anyone blaming HIPS, scrapping of the 10% tax band or people "talking the UK into recession", clearly misunderstands what caused house prices to boom in the first place. The very simple and clear fact is that inflation in the supply of credit caused the inflation in the price of houses. Now that the credit is being withdrawn, house prices are falling.

A prudent approach to lending and a sensible level of lending would have prevented the bubble forming and there would be no impending bust. The prudent approach was dumped in the headlong rush to make money out of housing instead of using it for its real purpose - living in.

Who was involved in this headlong rush for "free" money? The banks, speculators, the BTL brigade, the estate agents, the media who told people the lie that property was a one way bet (that's you Anne), the government and the people who "believed".

Simon, Bangor,

Whos to blame...you! Yes the very person reading this article who has been manipulating the excel spreadsheet to show his/her ever increasing wealth caused by pure speculation and greed. Please stop trying to blame everyone else, so you think you can own a rental and take two holidays a year not to mention the new car, renovate etc etc....all on $45kpa ....do me a favour, sell the car because I think getting a re-mortgage this time round is going to be somewhat difficult!!

dan, nz, nz

Property bust and boom, economy, the full cycle.
It was only a matter of time.

Lee, Pontypool, Gwent

The moment HIPS came in on an over extended property market,this was the best way to start a downturn .Until it is removed we will not see any revival for some considerable time. More money pumped into the market will not help at this stage with prices at current levels. We will need a shakeout of those who have overcommited themselves now that other costs are going up, ie food ,utility and petrol etc

It seems each generation has to learn the lesson of not overstretching by personal experiance.

Paul, Droitwich Spa, UK

Greed and fear are human nature.... there is not one of us alive which does not feel these emotions... prices are simply an expression of these emotions

Jon, London, UK

No one body is to blame - this has all the classic signs of a bubble - Google "Lifecycle of a bubble" to see the graph.
Whatever bubble, commodities, gold, tulips, dot coms, houses there are always triggers that set the bubble off, and triggers that eventually pop the bubble. It's all driven by public pyschology - fundamentals don't mean a thing.

Ed, Harrogate, Yorkshire

Why of why do so many like Gareth Jones confuse hard work with priviledge.
Its a fact that many home owners have reached that state for no other reason than their own hard work and sacrifice while others have put more value on booze, fags silly mobile phone contracts satelite TV packages and sunburn holidays.

wayne, huntingdon, cambridgeshire

I wonder how many people this column has led into negative equity and false expectations. Statistics aren't taken so we'll never know unless Anne is suddenly replaced by a less obsessive property pundit.

Rob H, London,

Who is to blame for the house price bubble that has undermined the UK economy, made fortunes for get-rich-quick merchants, and priced out young people and families from decent affordable housing ?.

Anthony, London, UK

Our views on the housing market and the social impact it is having are obviously poles apart.

Whilst I believe housing should be available for all, you believe it should only be available to a privelaged few.

I would rewrite your headline to say "Who is to be CONGRATULATED for the housing market slowdown".

Gareth Jones, Dusseldorf, Germany

As Tim from City of London says, there is only 1 culprit........

BROWN

Louis Blanc, Liverpool, UK

Can you believe that television promotion is heavily to blame for the house price bubble (house price balloon perhaps) ?Anybody who watches (even briefly) day-time tele will remember frowning at price requests and future price projections that seemed totally unrealistic and in reality were unrealistic. This is house marketing and well -me oh my - Is it the supposedly non-commercial BBC that may have been heavily involved (perhaps ?-allegedly? )

Terry, Aquitaine, France

As always with our blame culture, when it is property related and as an agent for 21 years, I stick a virtual pin in the article to see how close I can get to the donkey that blames us.
Admittedly there are only a few lines of anti agent vitriol here, but for all the posturing over highbrow economics, it basically comes down to this.
Even in the rampantly rising years I was endlessly trying to manage sellers ridiculous price expectations. Even some of my competitors that flattered the client onto the market by agreeing with their inflated ideas, I find hard to blame. We are a mature nation but with selective memory. 1990-ish was still on the radar of most movers.
Overwhelmingly giddy homeowners were driving to upshift or downshift and always have enough loose change for a place in the sun, some Jimmy Choo's and and a temporary credit card clearance. As Thomas Hardy said, ' our impulses are stronger than our judgement'.

Steve Anderson, Cheltenham, engalnd

Giles from Singapore has got it. Australians too were subjected to the get rich quick schemes and mostly young buyers were led happily by the nose into negative gearing. As Giles points out, property prices go down as well as up (it's a supply and demand thing). Too many gullible, easy wealth seeking idiots believed they were smarter than the rest.

For those of you still alive in 15 years time watch it all happen again.

Mike, Sydney, Australia

It just seems a bit of a coincidence that house prices started to fall when this government introduced the Home Information Packs which is simply another tax. Why did they not listen and not introduce it ?

mark rosenberg, Manchester, UK

The blame lies primarily with the central banks and to a lesser degree the government. The Bank of England and for that matter the Irish central bank could have tightened up on lending by the simple expedient of invoking the Basle and Basle II capital adequacy requirements, which govern the capital ration (shareholders capital to depositors) capital a bank must have valuing the bank's loan portfolio on a risk weighted basis. When the banks started selling outrageous mortgage "products" such as 95-115% mortgages or going over 4-times income, the central banks should have told them to raise more capital -- this would have choked off the crazy mortgage supply that allowed buyers to bid up house prices to ludicrous levels. Similarly, buy to let should have been treated as higher risk lending -- it is in fact. It was this mad lending that allowed UK and Irish house prices to exceed 9 times average household income against a medium and long-run worldwide average of 4 1/2!

Colm MacKernan, London/Washington,

it's none of the suspects listed on the byline - it's idiot punters who thought they could make a big profit borrowing huge amounts of money and buying property because they were stupid enough to believe prices could only ever go up and interest rates would only ever be low. if they're going to treat property as an investment - ie treat housing as an asset rather than a place to live - then they should also have taken notice that, as with the stock market and all investments, prices can go down as well as up!

Giles, Singapore, Singapore

Gordon Brown
For changing the measure of infalation so it didn't include housing costs (which are some of the largest cost to most people). This ensure the interest rates were set too low and encouraged the reckless leanding (and borrowing).

Tim, City of London,

Wha's this obsession with blame? Isn't it the economic cycle which goes up and down regardless of who is in power or who lends money? A look at house price inflation in the last 100 years reveals peaks and troughs throughout that period. We're on the cusp of the rolloercoaster and just about to do the bit where the brave ones hold their arms above their heads and scream. Most though cling with white knuckles until the thing bottoms out. End of analogy.

Brian Roberts , Plymouth, Devon

Perhaps the disproportionate scale of the boom that preceded it?

Trevor, Romsey,

Who's to blame? Lets think. Communists, Freemasons, Jews, Jesuits, single mothers, Albanians, Prince Philip ? Come on. It's got to be one of them, surely, or I want my subscription to the Daily Mail back.

Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales