Flipping is where a buyer buys an off plan apartment and hopes to sell on before completion, writes David Lawrenson

I'll summarise what's involved, what the risks are and whether it's worth doing now that the market is a bit quieter.

The UK housing market is showing renewed signs of confidence, but somehow it's not as exciting as it was six years ago.

Back then, things were so good there were lots on investors who would buy a property often with no intention to actually own it. Instead they would sell it to another buyer before completion. This was referred to as "flipping."

Often developers did not exactly stop this happening because they would get the benefit of having made a sale, often even before any major work had started on the site and in many cases even before the site was cleared!