The people who sold-to-rent (STR) have a vested interest in talking down the property market in the hope that a property crash occurs so that they can buy a property on the cheap from a poor distressed home owner who is forced to sell because they lost their job and cannot keep up with their mortgage payments with the intention of then waiting for the next property boom and sell the property for an absurdly high price to some gullible and naive buyer who is being ripped off and thereby make a significant amount of money.

The STRs claim that a property crash is coming but they are very mistaken and every day that goes by without even the slightest sign a crash occurring only undermines their case. Many predicted that a crash would happen years ago but house prices have only continued to rise and anybody taking the STRs advice to sell their property will have certainly lost out on some spectacular rises in house prices. The STR scaremongers have cried wolf so often in predicting an imminent property crash and their predictions have been proved wrong time and time again that they are starting to look ridiculous and foolish and are no longer believed.

The STRs argue that the gap between property prices and wages is now so vast that some correction in house prices must inevitably occur. However, this ignores the most powerful dynamic of all - supply and demand. House building is currently performing at about half that would be required to stave off further astronomic price rises. House prices continue to defy gravity and confound predictions of a slowdown. The housing market continues to hold up because of current economic conditions, notably high employment levels and low mortgage rates. There is a high level of consumer confidence that house prices will rise strongly over the next few years. Conditions in the housing market and the economy are different now to those of the late 80s and early 90s. The boom and bust of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s have been succeeded by a more stable housing market in which high house prices are more sustainable than they were in the past. Economy stability, benign inflation environment, historically low interest rates and record number of people in work all means that demand for houses will remain strong.

Some STRs say that they want house prices to fall to sensible levels so that they can buy a property at a reasonable price and claim that they are not interested in making money from any future rises in house prices but this is complete nonsense because the STRs always view property as an investment and would never entertain the idea of buying a property unless they thought they can make a substantial profit by selling the property for a much higher price in the future.

The STRs seem to think that a property crash will occur over-night that will cause house prices to crash back to sensible levels but this is very wishful thinking because it will take many years to bring house prices back to normal levels. The STRs wrongly assume that a crash will somehow make property cheap but they are very mistaken because property will still remain expensive even in the event of a crash and the STRs will find themselves very disappointed by the scale of falls in house prices during a crash. There will have to be at least a 20% reduction in house prices just in order for the STRs to break even when buying a property to cover the transaction costs involved like stamp duty, estate agent and solicitors fees.

The STRs are getting itchy feet and are fed up of renting and cannot wait to get back onto the property ladder. It is somewhat strange that the STRs are so keen to get back onto the property ladder when they were so keen to get off the property ladder in the first place. It is best for all concerned that house prices remain high for the foreseeable future in order that the STR suffer the stigma and humiliation of living in rented accommodation forever as punishment for having sold their home at a ridiculously high price to some over-stretched and gullible buyer.

The STRs claim that there are vested interests trying to talk up house prices and yet the STRs are not exactly free of vested interests themselves because they want a property crash to occur so that they can buy a property at a low price with the intention of selling the property for a much higher price and make a substantial profit in the next property boom. The trouble is that the STRs don't know what trigger will cause a property crash, when the property crash will happen, by how much house prices will fall, when the trough in house prices will be reached, how long property prices will remain languishing at the bottom and worse still they do not know when the next boom in house prices will begin.

The STRs fail to appreciate the fact that it is only a severe recession that causes house prices to crash. The current economic and housing boom started in 1996 and has now lasted ten years which means that there will be a long and deep recession lasting about ten years in order to unwind and roll back all the excesses and distortions of the current boom and return the economy back to the normal state it was in prior to the boom having started. It is only until the recession has managed to completely unwind the boom such that the economy is purged of all the inflationary excesses of the boom will the economy then be in a state where a new boom can take place causing house prices to rise.

There is little point in the STRs waiting for a property crash to buy property because there is unlikely to be another house price boom for at least ten years which means that even if a property crash does occur it won't necessarily make it a good time to buy property since house prices will be falling or languishing at the bottom for ten years whilst the economy is in recession and there is little advantage in buying a property that will not be appreciating in value for many years until the next economic boom begins in ten years time. Buying a property that is not appreciating in value is simply wasting money and the value of the property will not be appreciating to keep up with inflation which means that the value of the property is being continually eroded away by inflation.

It is the STR speculators who take the most interest as to what is happening to the housing market rather than first time buyers who in many cases have given up any hope of getting onto the property ladder in their lifetime. The STRs are continually posting negative reports about the housing market on various internet chat forums in a desperate attempt to talk down house prices and are clutching at straws in using the slightest bit of bad news, no matter how trivial, to justify a house price crash.

It looks like we have to go through a ten year long recession, causing misery to millions of people, just to enable the STRs to get back onto the property ladder. The STRs are just greedy, lying, deceitful scum who are just waiting to take advantage of other peoples misery by buying a property at a low price from a distressed home owner who is forced to sell because they can no longer keep up the mortgage payments.

The people who sold-to-rent (STR) let greed cloud their judgement and sold their property based on the assumption that house prices would crash soon after they sold their property which would enable them to get back onto the property ladder and buy a property on the cheap in a crash but it hasn't quite worked out that way since the housing boom has continued for much longer than they had expected and as a consequence the STRs have seriously miscalculated and are now resigned to the fact that they will continue paying dead money in rent for much longer than they had anticipated.

The STRs moan and whinge about high house prices but that did not stop them from taking advantage of the property boom and selling their house for a high price to an over-stretched, naive and gullible buyer, knowing full well that the property they were selling was way over-priced and the buyer was being ripped off.

There is a strong whiff of hypocrisy from the STRs who say that house prices are too high and yet they were quite happy to sell their property at a high price when it suited their interests and as soon as they sold their property they start to complain that property prices are too high. The STRs are just two-faced hypocrites who would at one moment talk the property market up when they are trying to sell a property at a high price and make a significant profit and the next moment are quite prepared to talk down the property market soon after they sold their property when they want to get back onto the property ladder.

The STRs want to have it both ways, they want house prices to be high when they are selling a property and they want house prices to be low when they are trying to buy a property. Since the STRs were quite happy to exploit the property boom and sell their property at a ridiculously high price, knowing full well that the property was way over priced and that the buyer was being ripped off, then the STRs have no right to complain about high property prices because they are so keen to get back onto the property ladder when they were quite prepared to sell their property for a high price.

Some STRs even have the bare faced cheek to write to their Members of Parliament to complain about high house prices when they were quite happy to take full advantage of high house prices by selling their property for a ridiculously high price, knowing full well that the property was way over priced to some poor over-stretched gullible and naive buyer. The STRs who have been writing to their MPs complaining about high property prices did not complain to their MPs about high house prices before they sold their property for a high price but only complained after they sold their property which is dishonest and totally disreputable and despicable.

Since the STRs sold their property for a high price then it only makes sense that the STRs should themselves be made to pay a high price for property if they want to get back onto the property ladder. Although the STRs were quite happy to sell their property for a high price they are reluctant themselves to pay a high price for property and want a property crash to happen that causes property prices to fall significantly so that they can then buy a property on the cheap.

The STRs just can't understand what is keeping the housing boom going and many STRs made the miscalculation of selling too early and have missed out on some truly spectacular capital gains since selling their property.

Many people who sold-to-rent (STR) are having serious misgivings about selling their homes because they are continually seeing the value of the properties they sold rise in value. Many who sold-to-rent cannot bear to watch the news or read the newspapers for fear that they will report another surge in house prices. Many STRs are in denial that the houses they sold have risen in value since they sold them and are trying desperately to keep a brave face in public but in reality they know that they have missed out on steep rises in the values of their properties since they sold them and are kicking themselves for having become greedy and selling at the wrong time when the best option would have been to have waited and enjoyed the further additional capital gains they would have enjoyed if only they had not got so greedy and sold so early.

Many STRs are filled with fear and apprehension when walking past an estate agent for fear that they might catch a glimpse of what their house is now worth after they sold it and they are making a conscious decision to avoid going past estate agents for fear of finding out how much the properties they sold have gone up by since they sold them. Some STRs have developed a phobia of estate agent advertisements in newspapers and the property supplements in newspapers in case they discover by how much the properties they sold has risen since they sold. Many STRs try to ignore and set aside the property supplements and estate agent adverts and when their friends read the supplements and see by how much the properties that the STR sold has risen by they grin and pull a face of unbridled and unrestrained glee that their STR friend is missing out on having made so much money.

Many STRs are having sleepless nights and breaking into cold sweats about how much money they could have made if only they did not sell so early. Some STRs are finding the taunts and baiting that they are getting from their home-owner friends at work unbearable but the STRs try to keep a brave face but deep inside the STRs are feeling absolutely sick about having missed out on the further steep rises in house prices. Many STRs are increasingly getting depressed as they see no end to the property boom and are becoming ever more miserable and angry with themselves and some are saying that selling to rent was the worst decision of their lives.

Not a day goes by without the STRs having serious misgivings about selling their homes and thinking about by how much the property they sold has risen by since they sold it. Every day the STR is reminded about houses prices and wince and cringe whenever they over hear people in the office talking about how much their houses have gone up in value. The STR must be living a life of hell as they are always living in dread when reading the newspapers or listening to the news or hearing people in the office talking about house prices because the last thing the STR wants to hear is that house prices are still going up. Many STRs are now resigned to the very real possibility that they will be living in rented accommodation for many years to come and may never get another chance to get back onto the property ladder. The money that the STR made by selling their house is little consolation when they find themselves living in rented accommodation forever.

The STRs are desperate to reinvest the money they made in selling their house as soon as possible because they fear that the longer they leave their money in the bank the less it will be worth because rising inflation is continually eroding away the value of their money. The STRs are in a race against time to try to reinvest their STR money back into property before their STR fund becomes worthless because of rising inflation. Low interest rates means that the STRs are earning a pathetically small amount of interest by keeping their STR fund money in a bank account which at best is just barely keeping up with inflation. The STRs dispute the claim that inflation is eroding away the value of their STR money by saying that there are many bank accounts that earn interest at or near the official rate of inflation. However, even the dogs in the street know that the true inflation rate is much higher than the official inflation rate and the true inflation rate is much nearer ten percent rather than the official two percent and there are few bank accounts that will earn interest above ten percent particularly after tax has been deducted. Given that the real inflation rate is closer to ten percent rather than the official figure of two percent this means that after ten years the value of the STRs fund money will in real terms end up being practically worthless.

The STRs seriously miscalculated in assuming that the cost of renting will be dramatically less than the costs of servicing the mortgage they once had because low and falling interest rates has meant that the interest payments on their mortgage would be very low in comparison to renting out a similar type of property. The STRs took a gamble in selling their house on the assumption that house prices would crash soon after they sold their house and they could buy a property very cheaply and get back onto the property ladder fairly quickly. However, the housing boom shows no signs of crashing and the STRs will have to wait many years before there is any chance of a crash occurring. The miscalculation of the STRs in assuming that they could get back onto the property ladder quickly is costing them dear because whilst they are waiting for the crash they are continually paying dead money in rent which is helping to pay off their landlord's mortgage whilst the value of their STR fund money is continually being eroded away by inflation.

The STRs outgoings and expenses have increased considerably since selling their house and living in rented accommodation because they had not foreseen the detrimental impact that living in rented accommodation would have on their quality of life and as a consequence they are finding themselves spending far more than they did when they owned their house just in order to get over the feelings of depression, anxiety and uncertainty associated with renting and living with the constant fear of never being able to get a foot onto the property ladder ever again.

Property has long been a major investment sector in the UK and people have always appreciated the benefits of owning property over the long term, particularly in terms of capital appreciation. This is hardly surprising when you consider that the property market has consistently generated good returns for UK investors over the past 40 years and residential property has on average doubled in value every seven years.

Despite its historically positive performance, property continues to be the victim of an onslaught of the STR speculators who keep promising an imminent crash just around the corner. There are a number of very good reasons to doubt these predictions. Firstly, interest rates remain low by historic standards and mortgages are at their cheapest for more than 25 years. The predicted property crash is also more unlikely to materialise when you consider the fact that the UK has high GDP growth and employment levels and a shortage of housing supply. In fact, the quantity of newly developed units is more than 100,000 behind current demand levels and the gap is expected to widen, with house building in the UK at its lowest since the Second World War.

Here are the reasons why you can't go wrong with property as an investment:

• Property prices always rise in the long term
• People prefer to live in a place of their own rather than living in rented accommodation.
• Paying rent is 'dead money', just money down the drain and money that is helping to pay off the landlord's mortgage.
• You must stay on the housing ladder, because downturns are short, and you cannot predict when to buy back in.
• The government and banks will not allow the property market to fall, there is too much at stake for them.
• There's a buyer out there that wants your property.
• People always need a place to live.
• The value of the UK's private housing stock has trebled over the last ten years.
• Householders are confident that the value of their property will continue to climb and continue to regard bricks and mortar as a sound investment.
• The number of people intending to buy a new home in the next few years is increasing.
• Rising incomes will catch up with house prices which means that house prices will remain high
• Household growth, and with it the demand for houses, is likely to accelerate over the next decade, with immigrants accounting for a good proportion of that growth
• Young couples with record wealth are fuelling the demand for second homes
• Changing demographics, a rising population and increasing prosperity and rising incomes will increase demand for property
• Housing is still relatively affordable because of a combination of low interest rates, competitive fixed-rate mortgage deals that are on offer and rising incomes.
• Despite the recent surge in house prices, it is on average 30 per cent cheaper to buy than rent a home in the UK over a 25 year period.
• Any fall in house prices will encourage the buy-to-let landlords into the property market to snap up properties which will help support the housing market and prevent any sharp falls in house prices.
• There is alot of pent up demand from FTBs and STRs who have been unable to afford the high property prices and have been waiting patiently on the sidelines and any fall in house prices will cause these people to snap up properties causing house prices to rise.
• London winning the bid to host the Olympics in 2012 will boost the demand for property and help keep house prices high.

House price bubble? What bubble? Those who claim that there is a bubble in house prices are wrong. If there were a bubble, there would exist a deviation of prices from fundamentals but a close look at the data reveals that the fundamentals adequately explain the current level of house prices. The pessimists argue that the ratio of house prices to income or rents, or mortgage payments to income ratios are now so vast that some correction in house prices must inevitably occur. These ratios are not very informative about the presence of bubbles, because they ignore a range of other important factors, including demographic and population changes, house-building, credit conditions, and other asset prices. Conventional ratios such as house price to rent ratios are misleading because they fail to account for long-run trends in real interest rates that have made housing rather more affordable in recent years.

The current high level of UK house prices does not look overvalued once low long-term interest rates are taken into account. This means that house prices today are not substantially overvalued above their long term equilibrium levels and therefore are not enough to qualify as a bubble which means that there is no evidence of a bubble in house prices. Strong rises in house prices can be largely explained by the combination of strong income growth, higher population growth (partly from immigration), lower interest rates and low rates of house building.

The pessimists argue that UK house prices are overvalued by 30 per cent, or even more and warn of the danger of a protracted period of house price falls, with dire implications for consumer spending. But these pessimists are wrong. Even if one considers a gloomy scenario in which the economy turns sour - inflation rises, interest rates rise in response, real income falls and the stock market is flat for two years, this would only lead to moderate falls in house prices, especially in London and the south-east but not in the country as a whole.

The fundamentals are sound and adequately explain the current level of house prices. So, the answer to the question "was there a recent house price bubble in the UK?" thus appears to have the answer "No".

The house price boom has entered a period of stagnation in which house prices are levelling off and there won't be a sudden crash. The recent emergence of the BTL landlord will ensure that any fall in house prices will be short lived since they will take advantage of any lull in house prices and snap up properties causing house prices to rise back up again.

Reasonably priced, well presented homes are still selling. In fact it's a good time for serious purchasers, including first time buyers, to jump in and find a good property for they are in a great position, with a big choice of homes for sale, and the opportunity to negotiate hard on price to get a good deal. Estate agents remain optimistic and are seeing many new properties coming on to the market selling like hot cakes.

Recently there has been a clear change in the mood of the housing market pessimists with many of them questioning whether there will be a price crash at all and now accepting that house prices are likely to stagnate for many years. There will have to be a dramatic change in economic fundamental in order to cause a crash. The combination of improving economic growth, low interest rates and high employment will continue to underpin a healthy level of housing demand over the next few years. Drawing comparisons between now and the late 1980s when the previous housing market bubble burst, some economists say that the current strong labour market would help avert a steep fall in prices. We are not going to see a rise in unemployment which could force homeowners to sell their houses and boost supply. There may well be a short-term dip in property prices, if the market over corrects itself. More likely is that the growth will slow down for a reasonable period.

The STRs only chance of getting back onto the property ladder is if there is a recession that results in many forced sellers trying to sell their property causing supply to exceed demand and thereby result in lower house prices. Even if house prices do fall, it would be foolish for home owners to start panicking. Homeowners should bear in mind that property is a long term investment and regardless of any falls that may occur in house prices in the short term property always goes up in value in the long term. Homeowners will only lose money if they sell at a low price and provided they don't panic, sit tight, hold on and ride out the downturn, then and in a year or so, the chances are that they will once again be enjoying satisfactory growth on their asset value.

Investment in property carries an inherently low risk factor compared to other kinds of investment like stocks and shares. Houses will not go out of fashion or become obsolete like services or products. They are an essential for us all. That’s why house prices have consistently doubled every 10-15 years over the last century. Coupled with the fact that monthly rental values rise with wages (which is a function of inflation) and that the mortgage payment is relatively fixed (only altering with interest rate fluctuations) the profit element always rises. In addition, after the mortgage has been paid the rent is all profit. That’s why many people see investing in property as their pension fund.

House prices cannot fall by much since there are far too many people out there who have decided they're waiting for a crash to buy up. This means as soon as there is a downturn, these people waiting in the wings will swoop in for their bargains, and the demand will increase once again. The other thing to bear in mind, is that a house only has value when people sell. This means that in a downturn, people will not sell unless they have to, thus reducing the supply of housing. With the increasing number of single people living alone, there is simply not enough housing.

House prices will not crash. Salaries in central London are still very high and demand is huge. With the high numbers of rich people from overseas looking to buy a place in London and the supply of good housing so small, simple economics states that while demand is greater than supply the prices will continue to rise. Anyone who has bought in the last year will know that there are very few properties in the good areas and if they exist they are gone within days.

House prices don't fall unless a lot of homeowners find it impossible to sustain their mortgage payments and are forced to sell. This only happens if interest rates rise abruptly and unexpectedly, and that isn't on the horizon. Most likely, house prices will stabilise and property market turnover evaporate.

The most likely scenario will not be a house price crash but a levelling off. There is still very strong demand in London and whilst interest rates are low houses are a lot more affordable than before the 90's crash. Also London is the centre of the service industry, one part of the economy that is still very strong. At the moment those hoping for a crash will be disappointed.

The housing market is not going to crash for the foreseeable future. Even if property prices were to fall in a downturn it will make investing in property more effective from a value approach, and produces greater "dividends". This attracts more buyers for investment reasons, as well as a few first time buyers who can now afford a better place, and prices will rise again. It's no good the STRs praying for the mother of all crashes, it simply is not going to happen.

Inflation will eat into the value of the money made by the STRs in selling their house (STR fund), reducing its buying power over time. Although inflation has been fairly low in recent years, it will still eat into their STR fund. With the official rate of inflation at 2.0% and the standard rate of tax at 22%, the STRs will need to earn a gross interest rate (before tax) on their STR fund of 2.56% just to maintain the value of their capital. For those who enter the higher rate tax band of 40% they will have to earn gross interest (before tax) of 3.33% to preserve the value of their capital.

However, it is widely acknowledged that the officially quoted inflation figure of 2% is fiddled since it is far too low and the true rate of inflation is much nearer 5%. Given that the realistic rate of inflation is 5% rather than 2% then this means that the standard rate tax payer will need to earn a gross interest (before tax) on their savings of 6.41% and the higher rate tax payer will need to earn a gross interest (before tax) of 8.33% in order to preserve the value of their savings.

The current rate of interest set by the Bank of England stands at 4.5% but most bank accounts do not earn more than 4% gross interest (before tax) which means that the STRs are struggling to find a bank account for their STR fund money that earns enough interest to preserve their STR fund against the effects of inflation.

The doom mongers who had argued that a property crash is inevitable are now admitting defeat and accept that a property crash will not occur in the foreseeable future. The scaremongers had been bearish about the property market for many years but their predictions have been continually proved wrong and they have been stunned by recent reports of a renewed rise in house prices following the recent lull. The property bears are totally demoralised and inconsolable at news of another surge in house prices and are having difficulty in coming to terms with the new era of permanently high house prices.

The people who have been bullish about the property market have been vindicated and are triumphant whereas the property bears are licking their wounds and are retreating from view in the face of their humiliating defeat.

Much as there are three stages for accepting a bad turn of events; denial, anger, acceptance; there also appear to be three stages of denial when it comes to the doom-mongers predicting house prices:

1. "History always repeats itself"

Here, people who know all about economics, asset classes, bubbles, Japanese deflation, etc (but little about what is happening in the real world) tell us that because ratios such as house prices to earnings are similar to levels seen before previous periods of house price deflation, then a crash is imminent. Anybody disagreeing with such theories (including experienced property investors who know their local market intimately) is dismissed as lacking any understanding of economics and being brainwashed by the media of following the herd and believing in a new paradigm. Sadly some believed in a property crash so strongly that they either postponed buying a house to live in, or (get this) even sold their property and rented one instead.

2. "It may not have happened yet but that means it will soon, and it will be all the more painful"

These people believed that the bubble was getting bigger, and would therefore burst with an even bigger bang. Sadly, they failed to recognise that for most people, home ownership is about lifestyle rather than investing in an asset, and that the low-interest rate economy and low unemployment, changes in attitudes to renting, and the BTL brigade, had all created a very different housing market from ten years previously. This phase is marked with every bit of "bad" news seized on as evidence, and every bit of "good" news angrily dismissed as a media conspiracy.

3. "The crash still hasn't happened, I feel so stupid"

After a brief glimmer of hope after prices failed to continue to rise (and even showed small year on year drops), the lack of any evidence of the "bubble" bursting has the doom-mongers running out of new arguments. Some of them cling to the "it will happen, I may be a decade out with the timing" argument, others quietly go away. Meanwhile those in the know take advantage of the fact that houses don't now sell at asking price within a couple of weeks and start snapping up some bargains at 20% or more below market value, either to rent out at 9%+ yields, or to sell on for a quick profit.