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It is totally wrong for buy to let investors to get tax relief on mortgages when first time buyers can't !! Brian, financial adviser.

We are four miles from Reading where your programme is based this week and our house has been on the market for eleven months. We have reduced the price three times - only six viewings! Changes in cost of living appear to have killed the market. R.Bailey, Mortimer

Adolf Brown has caused Boom.. Borrow billions.. Bust! ANON

I am an estate agent and I personally have seen one of our busiest months. We sold 5 apartments to a combination of first time buyers and investors. I might like to add that one particular investor had purchased 50 properties that weekend alone and there were no huge reductions as you were indicating on the show. Laura

My house in Southampton went on the market in August and was valued by 3 estate agents at £220000 who all said that it would sell quickly at the full price - others in the area had recently sold at this value. The house is still unsold and having dropped the price by £5000 the agents want me to drop it by another £5k. That is a 5% drop, even if it goes at the full price. More likely is that it can now sell for between £200 - 205k which is between 7.5% and 10% below the August level. If this is not a crash I don't know what is. It seems that nothing in the area is selling which I presume is why the official figures suggest only a very small drop in prices. Once sellers have to start accepting the reduced offers the true extent of the slump will show and it won't make good reading for house owners.

Mark Saines

After hearing the first part of your housing debate, I was and am most SHOCKED! I wonder what your speakers' opinions would be, if they had 3 boys in an OVERCROWDED 2 Box room flat? I kid you not, they would most certainly hold different opinions and make urgent changes. I am fed-up with them avoiding such issues with any form of seriousness, but merely Political toys. How are we to change our circumstances with no opportunities? Not even considered priority on the Housing Allocations. Does this not contribute to child poverty? Thanks

I'm 20 and I have been trying to get on the property ladder with my partner for nearly a year now. On the new property estates by us they used to do special deals to help first time buyer get on the property ladder. But property developers took advantage of that and brought the houses to rent out. This should not have been allowed. Now No first time buyers can get started. Something should be done to help them! Heidi

People who talk about a 40 percent drop are irresponsible. They are trying to create panic and in doing so will create a self fulling prophecy for their own ends. There is no economic evidence to support these claims stop trying to talk the market down! Simon Morris, Brighton

It's not that interest rates are high: it's that they were too low for too long. When central banks in the US, UK and eurozone slashed rates in 2001/2, they unleashed a wave of cheap credit that has knocked every asset class into the stratosphere ever since. Housing has been one of the most bloated and imbalanced sectors because cheap credit has been so easily available to all and people began to think that lax-lending was the norm. Now they're realising it was just a blip and the market will crash accordingly. The madness of making six-figure money out of nothing couldn't last forever, after all. M Brodie

Whether or not there will actually be a crash I have no idea, but I do feel it is high time the general media accepts the very real possibility of one instead of broadcasting the usual pro-property market spin that always seems to be in the headlines.

Do the people that choose what stories to run all own Buy to Let properties? =P So, the end of the housing boom? Bring it on!Kong

I think that the over supply of credit is just as much to blame for overvalued property as is the under supply of houses. People have let themselves become manipulated left right and centre into desperately getting onto the property ladder. We all need a roof over our heads, however, if food went up 10xs our salary there would probably be a revolt!helena

Do away with stamp duty for 1st time buyers up to 250k would make a big difference. ANON

Of course the government should press ahead with house building. Even if house prices fall, it's only because banks are lending less; so the first-time buyer still can't get on the ladder. Andrew Montgomery

I can not get on the property ladder. I am on under £15,000 a year working for the army doing a job as corporal. Living in DORSET it is impossible. Jim B, Dorset

On a £ per square foot basis the average UK home costs 4 x average US home where prices are crashing with interest rates at 4.5%, strong employment and no recession, yet. Of course prices in the UK will fall and fall along way. This is not 'doom and gloom' except for speculators and bankers. For anyone else who wants their first home or simply wants to trade up this is excellent news. It is time we stopped mortgaging our children's future and faced reality, the Uk economy has been wrecked by the city and Gordon Brown. Robert Ball

Hi! I distinctly remember BBC news warning viewers six months ago that the housing market was heading for a slowdown by Xmas - are you sure this is not media-inspired hysteria? Move power supply from a regional and expensive power strategy to a more locally produced regime. Local residents and their landlords in social housing claiming benefits would especially benefit from the share of any profits generated. Steven J Humphrey, Boscombe, Bournemouth.

House prices are totally overvalued. But that is OK, the market will correct and the prices will come down. A house price crash will be excellent for this country. Young people will be able to afford a property and people might stop talking about house prices so much. Jake Brumby

The fallacy of a housing shortage has been pedalled by those with a vested interest in maintaining the house price bubble, which has diverted large sums from borrowers into the pockets of lenders and estate agents. Just as last time, prices have soared due to a flood of credit, not a tide of people with no roof over their head. Now the credit is no longer there to support these absurd prices, only one thing can happen, despite the fatuous nonsense that vents from the mouths of so-called economists who should (and probably do) know better. It is a form of corruption - within the law, but corruption none the less. David

The house price rises are caused by over supply of credit. There is no shortage of property. If there were rental prices would have increased too. We do not have to build 3 million new homes to solve the problem. We do need to reign in the lenders though.Nick Thorn

Wake up - a housing crash is imminent and the people saying it isn't are lying due to personal bias. ANON

Too many people have put there trust in property which has put the price up which then make more people want to invest but as soon as they realise property isn't worth the price they have paid the balloon will burst. Dan from Brighton.

Oh dear everyone taken on too much debt have we? I am looking forward for people like Rosie Millard having to declare bankruptcy as the affordable credit dries up. Debt is not OK, and it's about time the BBC held up it's hands, to it's part in this property speculation boom. The real news is that in Spring 2008 so many mortgage resets from 2005 will be appearing that property could well be worth 40% of it's current value, especially when factoring in that the emigration rate in the UK more than makes up for the immigration. Andrew

What is this obsession with falling house prices being a bad thing. Thick about this for a moment. You have said yourself that in some areas houses are 10 times their average earnings. Is it right that a working class person, or a teacher, or even a graduate cannot find a place to live. Lots of my friends have gotten on the ladder this year and they will seem pain. But for wider society it is a good thing. House prices at the moment is little more than extortion against those without homes (that does include people in their 40's with families). This affects everyone and is not what I want for our country. More houses? Yes, help people to find somewhere to live not use housing as an investment that forces people to despair. House price falls - buyer beware. Bob

Hips is to slow housing market so interest rates can come down. Dave, Southampton

Northern Rock took eight months to arrange a mortgage for us in 2005. The delay caused us to leave our lovely house. Alison Smith, Brighton.

Inflated price because developers control prices- in fact "call the shots". Estate agents follow. ANON

Do we really need to build so many houses? clearly immigration needs to be controlled first. Denis, Newbury

The idea of constant growth in the economy is very retarded. Economies have cycles. Housing would be more affordable for all if pensions & other investments were more tax efficient. I have several lets in Reading bought since my pension was raided! Andrew

Ban second homes, then there would be no housing shortage. ANON

Buy to letters are eating up the cheap homes for first time buyers ANON

We're in the army and are worried about when to buy.

Adolf Brown has caused Boom.. Borrow billions.. Bust! ANON

Cheap credit is over. 3.5 x salary as average mortgage prices must reduce. Guy.

Labour has lost its confidence & that of the country - cramming in thousands of new flats without the infrastructure is madness. Gideon Mack

HOW AFFORDABLE WILL THE NEW READING CITY GATEWAY FLATS BE? 235 STILL SEEMS VERY EXPENSIVE FOR A STARTER HOME.

It's very hard to feel sympathy for buy-to-letters as it's them that are responsible for a generation of first time buyers being priced out or overmortgaged. MS

At 31, and married I earn £20,000 a year, £1,300 a month. I've not been able to get a mortgage. Affordable housing is a mirage. Guido.

Reckless lending is the main reason why prices have risen NOT supply & demand. THAT GAME IS NOW OVER. Rich, Bournemouth.

Rental properties are in serious demand at the moment due to the huge amount of people that buy to let are selling urgently. ANON

We should stop calling it a Housing Ladder. It is a Housing Snake. Sue

Bricks and mortar are still the safest pension pot, except if you are an MP, so where else should we invest? Sue, Twyford.

We are in the army and are worried about when to buy? We still have 10 yrs service to go and cannot afford to buy at the moment as well as rent our married quarter. I think it's disgusting the whole business of how they allow house prices to grow to the extent that they do it regardless of supply and demand. Homes are for the rich and gamblers we don't want the earth just somewhere to call home. Please define affordable housing in cash terms. Roger, Winchester

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