To “churn and burn” or not to “churn and burn”? This is a question vital to the health of the housing market. But many mortgage lenders do not seem to be giving it much thought. There is evidence that some are “churning and burning” portfolios of repossessed buy-to-let properties - selling them at auction as swiftly as possible, seemingly caring little what they fetch. It seems the bosses of banks and building societies who have kept their jobs want to be rid of their past lending mistakes.

The “churn and burn” trend may be good news for buyers with cash who can acquire properties at knockdown prices. But it also slashes values - and not only in neighbourhoods where repossession is rife. There is also often little concern for tenants - a shortsighted policy, as those who rent are becoming increasingly assertive.

Lucy Morton of W.A.Ellis, the estate agent, says that her rental clients are asking for assurances that prospective landlords can afford their mortgage payments. They do not wish to be homeless because their landlords have been feckless. This is yet another example of the shift of the balance of power between landlords and tenants that has arisen from the new abundance of properties to let.

Some tenants have less bargaining power than at the start of the year, as we explain on page 15. But a strategy for the disposal of repossessed buy-to-let portfolios that keeps tenants happy and housed is still key to recovery.

A concern for tenants underlies the policy being pursued by Nick Hancock, an insolvency partner at the Manchester office of UHY Hacker Young, the accountant, as we explain on page 9. Mr Hancock handles buy-to-let receiverships - of which there is a large number in a city infamous for its oversupply of apartments. But Mr Hancock will not deal with the “churn and burn” boys. He names Nationwide as one lender willing to wait until it finds a buyer, with a proven track record, happy to find tenants in situ. Mr Hancock argues: “It is the attitude of lenders with repossessed properties that will turn this market around.”

This is a view shared by other professionals in Manchester, a location left reeling by the market's collapse, but still bent on self-improvement. Shameless, the Channel 4 drama set on the ficitional run-down Chatsworth estate in east Manchester, may be poised for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary as a term for “underclass” or “workshy”. But as we report on pages 8-9, Manchester planners do not want this part of town, or any other, to be permanently associated with decay.

The glut of new-build flats may be an example of ill-considered regeneration, but there are signs that the prices of these properties are finally bottoming out after large falls. However, this stabilisation will be sustained only if banks and building societies do not see “churn and burn” as the answer.

RECOVERY - IT'S ALMOST HERE

Other commentators believe that recovery may not arrive in some locations until 2018, although prices in London and the South East could return to their 2007 values by 2012. However, Stuart Law of Assetz, the property investment company, is predicting an end to house price falls “as early as September 2009”.

He bases this view on an upward trend in the annualised figures from the major indices. He also relies on the slightly better availability of mortgages and the demand for them - and also on the upturn in viewings reported by estate agents.

This is the same data that Mr Laws used in July 2005 to predict that the market was poised for a surge. The average UK house price in July 2005 was £166,141; a year later it stood at £179,721. At that time, the market was initially driven upwards by older, better-off buyers distrustful of conventional pension plans after the events at Equitable Life.

These are the same set of people, disenchanted with the stock market and returns from deposit accounts, who are now on the prowl. British Land, developer of the One Osnaburgh Street apartment block in Marylebone, London - which has now sold out - says that the average age of its buyers is 58. More recently, Mr Laws also forecast the downturn, but he does concede that he underestimated its extent. He does not underestimate the criticism that will greet his assessment. But he is quietly confident.

VILLA THRILLER

Bricks & Mortar is relocating - to a bigger, brighter space in the office, in a part of the office close to Sport, which is a win. But although we should be concentrating on the disposition of desks, our attention has been diverted by Villa, the account of the architect John Saladino's revamp of a Tuscan-style house on a Californian hillside (published yesterday by Frances Lincoln, £60). The word “painstaking” barely describes the endeavour: each floor tile was individually stained. But, as you see in the breakfast room, pictured, expense was sometimes spared: the shelves were bought from a thrift shop and the shells collected by Mr Saladino and Betty Bartlett, with whom he shares his life.

The volume - again “lavish” is an insufficient adjective - ought to inspire anyone planning a move, but, we warn you, it sets the bar very high.

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