Good news for those of you who are looking to purchase property. It seems the rate of increase in housing prices, as a percentage, is starting to even out. Having peaked in recent years to the point of ridiculous, house pricing now seems to be reaching achievable limits again, althought it will still be a time before first time buyers can comfortably get their foot onto the property ladder.

In Sept, the prices of homes dropped by 0.2% which is great news for people looking to purchase investment properties or first time buyers. In fact, at the moment, the annual rate of house price growth is just 1.8%.... thats the lowest it has been since 1996. Excellent news... unless you have purchased a lot of property recently!

House price to earnings ratios are significantly above levels of the early 1990s and this relationship alone has led many commentators to predict a bursting bubble and a subsequent housing market crash. Even Gordon Brown described the UK as having had a housing market bubble over the last two years. But experience so far shows no evidence of an imminent crash. Instead, the housing market has remained fairly robust and, as house price growth has softened, buyers have shown renewed interest in the market.

So in essence, if you are looking for a house in London and are earning less than £20k a year...settle for a shed or something!