Hi

Surely as the pound sinks - making UK property even more attractive to foreign buyers - property becomes more attractive in the UK by the day?

Luke Johnson in the FT today....

"Are assets cheap yet? It sounds a bit like the rhetorical question asked by Laurence Olivier playing a Nazi dentist in the film Marathon Man, as he tortures Dustin Hoffman’s character with a drill: “Is it safe?” he says.

It has been a year of devastation for capital values. Most stock markets and indices are down by almost half; pension funds are ravaged, hedge funds battered, property in freefall, commodities a wipeout, private equity suffering. I had the small consolation recently of hearing a billionaire say his net worth had fallen by 60 per cent in the past 12 months. Certainly, compared to a year ago, equities, corporate bonds and property are starting to appear tempting – especially when cash yields less than 2 per cent in the bank. But are these apparently giveaway prices a delusion?

A friend of mine who has been a highly successful property developer for more than 35 years says he believes there are once-in-a-lifetime bargains out there. He can recall the 1974-75 collapse and thinks the opportunities now are greater than they were then. The banks are so desperate to secure some recovery from sour loans that repossessed security is being sold for a fraction of the value it fetched in 2007. So for experts, distressed real estate is of interest.

"Even if bank deposits offer negligible income, the purchasing power of cash is rising in a deflationary world, and its liquidity is absolute.So my philosophy is to be patient and remain super-solvent. Eventually, forced disposals will reveal assets with sound fundamentals selling at the wrong price by any measure. Then you should pounce."

2009 - the year for UK property bargain hunting?