A survey by the Association of Residential Lettings Agents says that more than a quarter of all buy-to-let investors have mortgages of between 71% and 90% of the value of their properties, making them highly vulnerable to increases in interest rates. About 4% of landlords have mortgages above 90%. The survey shows that the average buy-to-let mortgage is 59% of the property’s value.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that Britain’s sub-prime mortgage system is comparable to America’s, prompting fears about the stability of the property market. It said the average loan-to-value in the UK was 76%, against 85% in the USA.

An autumn general election would kill the housing market for the rest of the year, says Knight Frank. Rupert Sweeting, head of country-house sales at the agency, says the weeks leading up to and following an election are always quiet. Factor in the Christmas lull and the number of transactions would fall until next spring, he believes.

Some London landlords are refusing to renew rental contracts with tenants, and are putting their homes on the market with higher rents instead, says the lettings branch of Hamptons. “Some rents have risen as much as 20%,” says Kate Whotton, the firm’s regional lettings director.

How to fight your way out of a housing market slowdown

Do you have the clout to tough out the downturn? Emma Wells and Lucy Denyer sort victors from victims

BACKGROUND

• Housing market analysis: the plight of first-time buyers

• Home economics - January's shock house price stats

• Home economics - the property market

• The harder they fall

• Home economics

BACKGROUND

• Wise up to size

• The property market: October 21, 2007

• Shires fall to foreign land rush

• House price gloom as the wealthy turn away

How to beat a property market slowdown

The market is cooling. But learn the rules and it could work to your advantage

• Why won't my house sell?

BACKGROUND

• Empty homes: the mystery of the UK’s million vacant homes

• Opening bids: Why the Government must do something about Britain’s empty properties

• It’s dire in the shires

• Cash in on your biggest asset

Smoking ban: a drag on prices?

Paula Hawkins examines whether house prices have gone up in smoke

BACKGROUND

• Misery for over-extended and over-indebted

• UK house market is ‘heading for crash’

• The property market: October 14, 2007

• Held to ransom

First-time buyers typically spend more than £11,000 on fees, bills and moving costs in their first year of home ownership, according to a survey for GE Money Home Lending. It shows the average first-timer has to stump up £1,200 for stamp duty, £877 for solicitors’ fees and £573 for surveys. And that is before they pay mortgages, furnishing costs, utility bills and council tax.

St Albans and Exeter take pride of place in a new way of playing the property market – via a national (rather than London) version of Monopoly. The two cathedral cities occupy the dark-blue squares given to Mayfair and Park Lane in the classic version of the game. Leeds and Liverpool are the dark-brown squares, previously the down-at-heel Whitechapel and Old Kent Road. You would be hard pushed to buy anything for £60 in either these days, though.

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• Top 10 incentives for house buyers