Property prices expected to rise at 7% this year, wage increases kept down to 2.5% for the majority - its not rocket science to work out that there has to be a critical point for property prices when they become just too unaffordable, and my guess is that its now just around the corner!!

Andy V, plymouth, UK

There seem to be many thousands of cheap, decent homes in Britain, yet for various reasons nobody is keen to live in them. Would it be intercontinental ballistic missile science for a government think-tank to solve the issue of WHY these towns are shunned and sort it out, maybe we could see them turned into retirement towns or whatever in the US fashion?

Piggy Kruger, Bridgwater, UK

The current real estate mania is truly global and perhaps is approaching the levels of intensity and economic "valuation" that ended the famous South Sea and Mississippi Land Bubbles of the 1720's era. In such an event one ought to realize that no matter what, their special property with it's special location, etc. would be just as common as all others as the bids disappear and the sellers try to dispose of their property. The fact that so much of this global real estate mania is financed with such leverage and it's only real redemption as an investment is ultimately finding a greater fool to sell to must in the end result in an implosion that perhaps will be as bad or worse than each of those bubbles. One really needs to read "The Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles McKay published in the 1830's to obtain a sense of the most likely coming unwind that will be the end of all of this. The implosion in the U.S.is spreading well beyond subprime.

Gary, Bassano, Alberta, Canada

Property shortage? There are 900,000 empty homes in the UK. People are happy to sit on these while prices are rising, but when prices turn (they can't continue rising forever) there won't be a shortage of property for sale.

On the subject of UK lending, this is just as reckless as anything in the US with mortages for 5x salary plus (or 9x if your parents act as guarantor) common place. While prices rise, stretched borrowers can remortgage themselves out of trouble but when prices turn the UK will have its own mortgage crisis.

Paul, London,

Somebody far cleverer than me described financiers as the people who make sure there's gold at the end of the rainbow- just as long as you and me don't go looking for it.

Britain is now a nation of service industries with nobody actually making money- even the "financial services industry" merely moves money arround in increasingly contrived ways- see US morgage market and tomorrows report for details.

A dip at this point or interest rates increasing to >8% would actually be a good thing- yes it would be a bump and a lot of people would loose their dream homes but that's far better than the almighty crash that would occur if the sun goes behind a cloud and all that gold at the end of the rainbow vanishes like it was never really there at all.

stan, middlesex,

disillusion inevitably follows complacency.Every man and his dog has to be on the omnibus before the bear does its work and crashes it.

j collier, aberystwyth, wales

I don't understand this high demand/lack of supply argument. If there was genuine lack of supply, why aren't all these people who require houses renting? Why are properties standing empty for long periods and rents falling?

I have just sold a property in south west london. There was no demand for renting it, just as there is currently no demand for the many other houses which are currently advertised for rent in the same area. Some friends of ours have just sold their property after getting no rental interest for months (and after reducing the rent). One can reduce the rent to a level where one is actually paying the tenant to live in the house i.e. making a loss on the rental income and relying entirely on capital appreciation to make a return. I cannot see the logic in that. I sold to someone who paid a price which valued the property far higher than the rental income would have done.

There is clearly no clamour for rentals, so where is this apparent lack of supply?

M Taylor, London,

The US market has mirrored the UK market before so why should it be different this time? As for BTL buyers snapping up devalued properties to prevent a slump, I find that to be very circular logic. Surely BTL owners are the very people who will be the quickest to dump properties in a slump? Most BTL owners (especially the most recent ones) are relying on capital gains to make their investment work and, as one of the experts points out, require such capital gains for access to further credit to buy further properties. If their "portfolio" of assets takes a hit in value, they'll surely be the first to experience difficulties.

An owner-occupier will usually do anything to retain the family home whereas a BTL owner has no incentive to hold on to a devalued asset. Most large BTL concerns are set up as a company that owns the assets so there's no loss to personal assets if the company goes bankrupt. Confidence in BTL investors is thus misplaced - they have the most obvious exit strategy

MB, Scotland,

Theres no evidence for a crash in London at the moment - there is a limited stock of property being chased by an expanding population, jobs are secure so people have plenty of cash, and interest rates are still historically low. Its a simple case of demand outstripping supply.
Those who predict a downturn are just wishful thinking as they cant afford to buy the house they want.

Stuart, London,

This article is based on poor people being sold debt they do not understand and cannot afford. What has that got to do with the UK housing market? I live in Islington, central London, and the unemployed/poor are not the lifeblood of my property market and I doubt they are that important anywhere in the UK.

The sub-prime market in the US does not affect the supply of credit, the job market in the City or reduce the attractiveness of living in central London. People should also remember that central London has only seen property price rises in the last 12 months, for 2-3 years before that prices were static and/or fell. A 30% rise is not much over 4 years.

London is currently awash with cash and until the City has a bad time the central London property market has nothing to worry about. From the number of cranes I can see from my office window we are some way off a drop in confidence let alone a crash.

Gareth, London,

How come those predicting rises are referred to as 'experts' while those predicting a downturn are always referred to as 'doom mongers'? The comically titled 'doom mongers' include the International Monetary Fund and an advisor to the treasury.

Dave R, London,

Of course, house prices only ever go up and banks in the UK aren't so irresponsible as to lend people money they could not afford to pay. Gordons MIracle Economy is truely at work with everyone who owns a home becoming richer and richer. Buy a home now, keep the dream alive and don't ever ever question the experts who sell you the house, loan you the money for the house or get paid large amount of money for property supplements, because these people only operate in your best interest, not for big profits, bonuses and to buy that new sports car.

Its worth looking at Times articles before the last house price crash. At least inflation is getting control and we are not getting poorer and poorer every month, all thanks to a magic basket that tells us that the price of Champagne and Sat Navs are coming down, making us so much better off.

There is a fan over there and I can see something brown heading towards it at an ever increasing pace.

Tony Brown, Sheffield,