Better than nothing. Those are the words with which one observer welcomed the Government's £1.6 billion housing market rescue scheme, unveiled this week with much heat and light. But it's a testament to just how dreary this year has been that such a judgment ranks as refreshingly upbeat.

Housebuilders, homeowners and housing associations were among the groups tipped to benefit from the smattering of measures, but most of the Government's attention was rightly focused on first-time buyers, the group most severely squeezed in the mortgage drought and who, mindful of negative equity, are proving most reluctant to take a punt on property.

It will be weeks before the detail of relief for homeowners at risk of repossession and 30 per cent interest-free loans to first-time buyers becomes clear - as we have learnt from other complex government policies loudly announced. Eligibility and accessibility have, in the past, been sticking points. One agent estimates that no more than 10,000 buyers can benefit from the HomeBuy Direct £60,000 first-time buyer loan - little more than half the number who typically enter the market in a single month.

But it should prove easier to judge the effect of the one-year stamp duty holiday - it started on Wednesday. Last year 230,000 buyers would have been spared bills of as much as £1,750 if the £175,000 had been in place. The beneficiaries this year will be many fewer, given that transactions are running at half those of 2007, especially in lower price ranges. But the benefit of this uncomplicated reform is that in some areas it will provide a stimulus across the market.

Hometrack analysis indicates that in parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and Middlesbrough all house sales will be stamp-duty exempt. Househunters and owners in Manchester, Hartlepool and Bradford should also feel immediate cheer. But the figures also confirm that there is little relief for London and the South East. Fewer than 2.1 per cent of sales in the capital are below the new stamp-duty threshold. Those in the South will have to comfort themselves with the agent Savills' belief that the South will recover sooner and more convincingly that the rest of the country - and that there is nothing in the Government measures to contradict that earlier prediction.

Wanderlust

Those homeowners who remortgaged UK properties in the boom to snap up a bolthole abroad may be regretting the extra financial burden now that attractive mortgage deals are proving as elusive as an empty Mediterranean beach. There were predictions this week that oil prices will spell the end of low-cost flights and leave many British-owned holiday homes “worthless”.

Property price growth is certainly in decline in many overseas markets as demand is forcibly cooled by economic troubles. Knight Frank, the agent, estimates that global house prices are now only 4.8 per cent higher than a year ago. Some areas are still powering on, with annual growth of 32.3 per cent in Bulgaria and 31.2per cent in Slovakia. But in continental Europe most countries are recording low or no growth, or house price falls, while American values are down 16.8 per cent.

Bob's at the Beach, a glitzy eyecatcher built on Lake Tahoe, California, by a man best known as Liberace's jewellery designer, has languished unsold for nine months, a victim of the region's crippled property market. However, in Rhode Island and the Carolinas demand and spending power remain undiminished, however grim the economic headlines.

Closer to home, Le Manoir de Raynaudes and the Château de Charly, two luscious French gems that are appealing enough to override a dire exchange rate. That message is not escaping wealthier buyers, according to Investec Private Bank, which has noted that just as prime property is cooling in the UK there has been a jump in demand for mortgages of more than £1 million to buy homes abroad. The preferred locations? Not Bulgaria or Slovakia, but France and Italy.

Sequestered soul

For a property to rival the finest that France offers, feast your eyes on Wookey House, above. There can be few sights of more distilled rural perfection than this honey-coloured lovely, near Wells, Somerset. But glance at this from the road and you would miss its finest feature: a fabulous, near-garish interior, lovingly executed by the sculptor and illustrator Peter Barker-Mill. You will need £1.7 million for the house and yet more to secure the precious fine art inside. Let's hope that there is a buyer with deep pockets and an appreciation that the way to honour a home is not always to be a slave to historical correctness.

Anne Ashworth is away

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