Downturns and times of difficulty always bring opportunities - even if only a few people manage to find them, and nerves of steel are required to take them up. One person’s credit crunch, after all, is another’s big break.

Twins Bryony and Kathryn Frost, 24, must be among the few people in Britain who thought it a good idea to set up a property company amid all this doom and gloom. Energetic, immaculately groomed and identical, the pair had been training as middle-distance runners, with hopes of places in the British team for the Beijing and London Olympics, when they were diagnosed with low bone density and advised by their doctors not to continue.

“We decided to put all the passion and energy we had for sport into investing in property,” Bryony says, sitting in the flat in Covent Garden that she and her sister use as an office. “We set up a company in difficult times and we are capitalising on them when everyone else is struggling.”

Bryony and her big sister – Kathyrn is 15 minutes older – made their first foray into the market in 2006 while studying human biology at Lough-borough University. Using sponsorship money from Adidas, they paid £100,000 for a four-bedroom house. After spending £8,000-£9,000 on renovating it and creating a fifth bedroom, they let it out for £1,450 a month to five students – an impressive 16% annual return on their initial investment.

Further purchases followed: last year, they bought a two-bedroom house on the Isle of Wight, where they were born, which cost them £82,000 and is let out to holidaymakers in the summer and another family for the rest of the year, just about covering their borrowing costs. Then came a five-bedroom house near the University of Sal-ford, just outside Manchester, valued at £150,000, which they bought for £110,000. It is rented out, again to students, for £1,475 a month.

Buoyed by the success of their purchases, the twins have decided to make a business of it. Their company, Elysium Skies, which started trading in January, matches people who need to sell property quickly with investors who have ready cash. The twins earn commission from the investors and take a slice of the rent if the properties are let out.

In return for a fast, certain transaction, the seller must accept a discounted price. While Kathryn and Bryony are understandably unwilling to be labelled “vultures”, they and their investor clients are undoubtedly capitalising on the misfortunes of others.

“We’re entirely open and transparent,” Kathryn insists. “We make it clear that we probably won’t give them the best price, but that we can guarantee to sell their property within a short time frame.”

Business is brisk for companies such as Elysium Skies. As unemployment and the number of repossessions rise, expect to see an increase in the number of such “vulture funds”. The twins are looking forward to becoming even busier next year.

This is, after all, the cheapest time to buy property for years – and it could prove one of the best. If you have the cash to get into the market today and are able to drive down the price further, you’re set to become even wealthier in the future.

If you think I’m being overoptimistic, just look at those who bought during the dark days of the early 1990s – and what happened to the value of their homes in the decade that followed. This time around, as then, confidence will eventually return – it’s all just a question of time.

The Frosts feature in a Credit Crunch Special edition of Location, Location, Location, in which my television co-host, Kirstie Allsopp, and I look at the property troubles of three sets of people, who represent three different groups affected by the current market.

Jo and Lee Cranmer, both in their early thirties, bought their family home in Swindon 2½ years ago and spent £15,000 doing it up. Then, in October last year, Lee got a new job as a senior traffic technician in Exeter – just as prices were beginning to topple. The couple, who have two children, wanted to move, but couldn’t sell their house for the price they wanted, so they let it out and rented in their new city.

Last month, they finally managed to sell in Swindon for £170,000 – £5,000 less than they had paid – but, despite their bad experience, they still want to buy a family home.

We advised them to choose somewhere to which they could add value, somewhere large enough for them to stay in for a long time and sufficiently flexible to be adapted as the needs of their family evolve. So, on the basis of their £170,000 budget and appetite for renovation work, we found a great place on the coast in Teign-mouth, Devon.

Negotiations are continuing. I’m determined that the price should include a “comfort cushion”, but the vendor has yet to agree. The market is continuing to move in the Cranmers’ favour, however, so I have advised them to sit tight.

Claudia Reyes, 30, a graphic designer, is a first-time buyer based in London, and one of thousands who applied for help via the government’s Homebuy initiative. She secured an Own-home loan of £89,000 to top up her deposit – so she should be able to obtain a mortgage, even with credit so tight.

A year ago, even a one-bedroom flat was out of her league, but a combination of the slump and the government scheme meant we could help her hunt for a two-bedroom flat in Zone 2 (the area immediately around central London). Reyes, who has moved back in with her mother while saving for a deposit, is delighted the market has fallen and is relishing the opportunities it presents. She initially wanted to live north of the river, but found her money went further south, so is buying a flat in need of work in Stockwell for about £220,000.

Finally, Debbie and Darren Ward, who are both in their mid-thirties, own two two-bedroom houses a few doors away from each other on the same street in Lincoln, one of which they let out.

With their second child now one – and still sleeping in their bedroom – the couple are desperate for more space. As this is not a good time to sell, they intend to let out the second house as well, and have asked us to help them find a decent family home for a maximum of £180,000.

With three mortgages to pay, they would be exposed if either of the tenants defaulted on the rent – so it is quite a gamble, and Debbie has had to get a part-time job to fund their living costs. As a long-term punt on the market, however, it’s a tough but workable solution to their problem.

The market never ceases or dies completely, even during a recession, when few of us feel like moving house for aspira-tional reasons. Which leaves the transactions caused by people getting married and divorced, and having children and dying. People also move jobs, schools and countries.

Understandably, at the moment many are sitting on their hands for as long as they can hold out. Transaction levels stood at 746,000 at the end of September – 54% down on a year earlier. As anyone who has tried sitting on their hands for a long time will know, however, it becomes extremely uncomfortable in the end. Regardless of any financial risks, the desire to move will eventually become irresistible.

Considering that the total number of transactions has halved in the past two years, it is not unreasonable to conclude that there are already upwards of 1m people living in homes that, in an ideal world, they would long since have moved out of. Which makes it reasonable to assume that, once the fall in interest rates has worked its way through the system, mortgages have become more available again and confidence has been restored, such homeowners will be keen to get moving.

Additional reporting by Anna Mikhailova

Elysium Skies; www.elysium-skies-investments.com

Phil Spencer is CEO of Garrington, a property-search company; 020 7376 6780, www.garrington.co.uk. Location, Location, Location’s Credit Crunch Special will be shown on Channel 4 tomorrow at 9pm

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