Amid all this turmoil and negative economic sentiment it is easy to lose sight of our main rationale:  Property: is it worth it?  (No, this isn’t a competition and I’m not expecting answers on a postcard, but if you have the solution, bottle it and sell it. You’ll make a fortune.)

Investors nonetheless seem to think so, with index-linked assets popular and buyers pricing in a period of growth, proving that despite the warnings of imminent gloom, some inflation isn’t such a bad thing.

Commercial fixed rates had dropped as the bite of cost cutting started to be felt, although that was short-lived as they bounced back up in anticipation of the MPC being the first to break ranks and raise rates, despite dire warnings of the consequences to the fragile property sector.

Maybe there is a glimmer of light as banks start to pick their way through the debris of the property world, rooting through their own self-inflicted apocalypse, and they now threaten to consider finance for assets most of us would race to lend on.

Regardless of the country-wide negativity and continued hand-wringing tenant void rates fell in November to their lowest level in five years, and residential rents seemed to be ever-increasing, driven largely by shortage of stock.  Even house prices rose a bit (or so rumour has it ...)

I am reminded of Dealers, that 90’s film we all enjoyed so much the last time we felt like this, where the young City broker finds himself on the wrong side of a trade, and rather than sell at a loss he buys more, makes a killing, gets the girl, etc. 

Maybe we should all take heed of this strategy, and whilst many sit and worry, those that can, fill their boots at realistic prices.  Fortune favours the brave, eh?

By Jonathan Rubins, Director of ABC