So we have the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors ( who usually predict a rising property market - even just before the crash - I wonder why ? ) saying the housing market is off again ( their spokesperson almost certainly has their fingers crossed behind their back ) and the *government funded* National Institute for Economic and Social Research saying the recovery is coming. ( The Guardian an...

I’m not bowled over much these days. But Guardian Open Platform is a chasmic leap into the future. It is a work of simplistic beauty that I’m sure will have a dramatic impact in the news market. The Guardian is already a market leader in the online space but Open Platform is revolutionary. It makes

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett claims there are signs of an "upturn" in the property market despite figures showing prices are still plummeting.

As Bob and The Guardian point out: The Guardian has learned that Alexander Heath, a director of the increasingly influential free market, rightwing lobby group, lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years. As The Guardian then doesn’t go on to point out The Scott Trust is based in the

Alan Walter, Chair of the Defend Council Housing campaign, writing on the Guardian Cooment is Free site 21st Century Britain needs a third generation of council homes. The private housing market has failed to deliver and millions need a secure tenancy, low rents and a democratically accountable landlord that council housing offers. Government is ideally placed to

According to surveyors and mortgage lenders - who have a vested interest in house sales - the housing market is starting to see ‘real momentum’. Surveyors have been among the most optimistic when predicting the turn in the market, and have been reporting interest in property from people who are failing to get much interest from

Or is it one more thing that they can be accused of dithering on? There’s lots in the papers this morning about the apparent plan to have a stamp duty “holiday” on property purchases of less than £250k in a effort to boost the depressed housing market. The problem is that raising the possibility without

NuLabour’s cheerleader appears to want to tax housing Polly Toynbee, the descendant of the 9th. Earl of Carlisle, and owner of a villa in Tuscany writes in her Guardian CIF column today on how she would propose to burst any future bubbles in the housing market. Well, one would normally expect the construction sector to provide

Larry Elliott, the Guardian's economics editor, warns that Gordon Brown's plans to boost the property market may not work and are undermined by the gloomy economic prospects

The Newcastle Journal has the full story of the Lib Dem city council’s move to buy up private sector housing to avert a property slump, and increase the supply of affordable rental housing: Newcastle City Council is buying 15 houses as the first step in a move to help stave off the property slump The authority