The housing market should bottom out in the coming 12 months, and by the end of the year prices could start to rise again, according to new research.

Affordability in UK housing has improved dramatically over the past year, meaning the property market could recover sooner than most economists expect.

The finding, from Lombard Street Research (LSR), contrasts markedly with the consensus City view, which is that house prices will fall by another 10 per cent – 15 per cent this year, taking their total fall during the current crash to over 30 per cent.

On Your Marks, Get Set ... Invest

Buy-to-let is dead, or so the conventional wisdom goes, killed by a combination of falling prices and the drying up of the credit markets. Try telling that to Simon Gray.

After selling his portfolio of properties in Chelsea, west London, in spring last year (“more by luck than judgment”), Gray, 50, who runs a seafood-import business, has just bought not one but five new-build Barratt houses on the outskirts of Billingshurst, West Sussex. Although unwilling to reveal how much he has spent on the properties (two with three bedrooms and three two-bedders), Gray says he received a “substantial discount” on the properties, which were on sale for £299,955 and £226,995 per unit.

Ignore the doom-mongers — this is the year to buy property, especially if you’re trading up.

When Diane Valentine decided to move to Kent, after her daughter Olivia, 16, got a place at Tonbridge Grammar School last year, she found the home of her dreams in nearby Sevenoaks. It was detached, with four bedrooms — but, sadly, at £700,000, was outside her price range.

Investors who have lost faith in the banking system are turning to property as a safe haven for their cash.

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.

Seaside towns beat the credit crunch as prices continue to rise.

Seaside towns are defying the credit crunch with stable property prices, according to two new surveys.