By David Lawrenson

A lot of the headline grabs on the property market make depressing reading. For a long while the US sub prime fiasco hangs over the UK market like a dark cloud and lenders here have been forced to tighten their lending criteria.

Just last week the Council of Mortgage Lenders said that it expected house price growth to slow to 1 per cent in 2008. There have been other predictions too plus a plethora of different statistics has been hitting the market - all watched over with baited breath by journalists looking for a headline.

The most downbeat prediction came from Capital Economics, which predicts house prices across the country will fall 3 per cent in both 2008 and 2009. They put this down to a weaker employment market, affordability constraints and a rise in repossessions.

You may recall that the famously negative Capital Economics predicted in 2003 that UK house prices would fall 20 per cent between 2004 and 2007. Of course, that did not happen. 'Nuff said!