Estate agents will say anything to get you to buy a house

I saw this headline in today's times "Frightened investors ‘pile into property’. It seems that the only thing that could save the property market was the fear of a systemic banking crisis.

Estate agents have identified a growth in interest from cash buyers, who want something tangible for their money rather than depositing it with banks they no longer trust.

The trend is emerging in all corners of the property market, according to one nationwide agent, from high-end mews houses in Knightsbridge to dilapidated two-up two-downs in the East Midlands. Lindsay Cuthill, head of the southwest London office of Savills estate agents, said: “Ten days ago a wealthy, well-known businessman seeking to buy a mews in Chelsea told me, ‘I feel my money is safer here than in the banks’.”

Robert Billson, head of Savills in Nottingham, said: “There are people with £50,000 who would rather buy a derelict house and board it up for a while than put their money in an Icelandic bank right now.”

So the safest thing you can do right now is put money into a a boarded up derelict house in Nottingham and just wait.

If this is the most profitable investment opportunity in the UK right now, then we are in deep trouble.