- When heavyweights such as Standard & Poor’s start talking about a UK property-market slowdown, it’s a sign that it is looming. “Conditions now appear ripe for the long-awaited slowdown in the UK housing market,” says the agency, which assesses the creditworthiness of firms and institutions. It says the liquidity squeeze that culminated in the Northern Rock crisis shook mortgage lenders’ confidence, and some potential buyers may find it harder to borrow.

- Meanwhile, Rightmove, the property website, says its index of asking prices on 200,000 homes in the month to mid-October shows an average property in England and Wales on sale for a record £241,612 – £22,000 more than a year ago, and up 2.7% in the past month. “Home information packs and their side effects are straddling a period of record house prices, the highest interest rates for six years and a tightening in lending criteria. This makes it hard for policymakers to read the market accurately,” says a puzzled Miles Shipside, the website’s commercial director. He says homes are typically taking 85 days to find a buyer, the longest period since 2002.

- The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is also baffled. It says the slowdown in sales and registered buyers since the beginning of autumn is sharper than expected – “worryingly so”. The NAEA, which represents 50% of UK agents, says it is uncertain in what direction the market will move for the rest of the year.

- Government figures show that across the UK, house prices rose by 0.5% in August, far less than the 2% increase in July. The Department for Communities and Local Government’s index, based on a sample of completed sales, reveals a typical UK home costs £219,528. The annual inflation figure in August fell to 11.4%, from 12.4% the previous month.

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

- Don’t expect the market to bounce back soon. Countrywide, the UK’s largest agency, says it is “hard to predict”. Its finance director, Mike Nower, has told Estate Agency News that, “based on the trend of mortgage approvals and the time lag between approvals and exchanges, spring 2008 is going to look tough”.

Graham Norwood

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