For all the diversity of America, the property ideal doesn't change much across the different states. From the saltbox houses in upstate New York and homes with swings on front porches in the Deep South to the swimming-pooled, gated properties of California, all tend to have the same features: a white picket fence, a large backyard, an SUV and a boat in the drive, a glare of windows and, above all, an aspiration to be big.

But since the US real-estate bubble burst two new classes of American home have emerged: the boarded-up, vandalised property, whose owners have long since been evicted; and the empty, never-occupied new holiday home, where a construction company completed a building project just as America started to go bust.

Florida is full of both. The latter, however, are now being marketed specifically to British buyers. These vast gated communities resemble posh ghost towns: granite-kitchen-type condos and parquet-floored cottages, surrounded by golf courses and tennis courts, often overlooking the sea. Many have been seized by lenders desperate to sell them and extricate themselves from the high security costs associated with maintaining them.

One company that is seeking to exploit the predicament of the banks is Stirling Real Estate, which shares a marketing alliance with Sotheby's International Realty. Tomorrow Stirling will host an online auction for such ghost-town properties, hoping to entice British buyers to buy a holiday home at a discount.

Jon Chipps, the managing director of auction services at Stirling, which is based in Lake Mary, Florida, explains that many of the bidders who have signed up for the auction will either have sent a personal adviser to view the properties or will have seen them on the internet. The properties look extremely attractive. One - 7812 Whitemarsh Way, a five bedroom Spanish-style house in the Reunion Resort & Club gated community near Orlando, has a guide price of $550,000 (£345,000) at auction. It has four bathrooms, a pool, spa, garage and separate guest suite, and is, in total, about 2,738 sq ft. It was completed only last year. According to Stirling, it was formerly valued at $1.595 million.

But according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index, widely perceived as the most authoritative measure of US house prices, properties in Miami fell by 25 per cent in August, compared with the same month the year before. It has been consistently one of the worst-affected cities in America. Many economists believe the house price slump to be only halfway through, with real estate values being still too high as a proportion of incomes.

Worse, the banking crisis has accelerated the economic slowdown in America, threatening the timing of any recovery. The Florida property market is more exposed to the British homeowner than any other state in America. As the UK is also headed for a sharp slowdown, could new expatriate homeowners in the Sunshine State also run into more trouble, depressing the market further? The second risk is the taxes and fees associated with owning a property. According to Stirling, 7812 Whitemarsh Way would attract a monthly levy of $456 just for use of the golf course. In addition, Florida state will charge an annual property tax, which must be factored into the so-called discount price.

For those already hunting for an online property auction, they may well also click on another, more sobering, website: eBay, where houses are now sold routinely. Last month Joanne Smith, a 30-year-old student, beat seven other bidders to buy a condemned property in Saginaw, Michigan, for $1.75. While Smith owns a house for less than the cost of a subway ticket, she is liable for back taxes and a garden clean-up. In the event that she does not pay by March next year, the city will foreclose on her.

www.stirlingsir.com/auctions

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