That's good then, because an academic at Cass Business School (not idiots) in the Guardian said it would be 2023 before prices rose to 2007 levels. Who do you believe?

Austin Tassletine, South West , UK

The fact that Professor Miles previously advised our esteemed Prime Minister, goes most of the way to explaining the mess that we are in. The man has undoubtedly completely lost touch with reality. The only benefit of this sorry mess is that house prices are plummeting and will continue to do so.

henry, Southampton, UK

Supply and demand is all i can say! Myson just BOUGHT!! a house because rent isdead money .He got a good buy . Double income buyers will soon be itching to buy at a good price.Leave it too long and prices will be slowly increasing .Supply and demand is everything coupled with the fact we WANT to buy

andrew, leeds, w.yorks

Housing slump could be over next year... Mwwwaaaaaahahaha Thanks for the laugh !

Oliver, London,

Harry, London
So ---- buy in East Anglia - where prices are reasonable.
You can commute to Liverpool St. and then take the underground to wherever like hundreds of other folk!
Nuff moaning .....

lyn, norwich, uk

I am a small shareholder in Lloyds TSB, I will shortly sell my holding in this company and close all my accounts with them. Utterly disgusted in their management and the bail out of HBOS. Hope that all individual sharehollders follow this example.What we are now left with is communism.

Vini, London, England

It is better for the national 'psyche' to believe that house prices will rise again in the near future. So, let it be.

stephen conner, london,

An average one-room studio flat near me costs £350k.
No balcony, no storage, no outside space, no parking.
No separate bedroom or kitchen. No bath, shower only.

I have a TWICE the average salary, of 50k, 2 degrees and a lifetime of sacrifice and hard work.

SEVEN times my salary for 1 room.

Harry, London, UK

Despite the POM attitude of doom and gloom ( I am a POM by the way) and opinions of 'experts, consultants' etc talking the market down, house prices will level & then rise in the not too distant future (unless this is the end of the world). It is an inevitable consequence of supply & demand.

Steve, Milton Keynes, UK

Did this guy go to the same school of economics as Brown? Simple maths -
The average house price is in the region of £170k
Mortagages now require a 15% deposit = £25k
Therefore mortgage amount = £145
Average salary = £25k
Maximum Mortgage Available = 3.5 x Salary = £87k

Neil B, London, UK

I rather suspect that this "economic expert" has a somewhat blinkered view. Has he taken account of the probable 3 million + unemployed who will depress earnings and make houses even more unaffordable at the bottom end despite lower prices? Or maybe he's thinking only of the wealthy bankers!!!!!!!!

A.M. Williams, Stafford,

What planet do you live on?

Richard Lancaster, London, UK

Couldn't have been much of an advisor with the boom massively out of control in the first place...

cww, Suffolk,

Snap election in the spring!!!!!!

john, milton keynes,

Buyers borrowed beyond their means, inflating house prices then causing the current crisis where bank assets (house values) no longer covered lending. Even if you can afford to sit on your property holding out for a high price, you will be undercut by those who cannot. I wouldn't buy at 8X salary.

DanOxford, Oxfod, England

Professor Miles needs to only look at the declining fortunes of the UK financial services industry, global economic downturn and rising unemployment to get real and realise prices will fall for at least another 2 years and not recover for another 10.

Nicholas Bromley, Bromley, uk

Would you trust these guys to buy a car from let alone a house, as recent history has proved what do they know?

Dave Farmer, Broxbourne, England

What a reliable source!

Michael, London,

The giveaway is the weasel word 'could' - in the fantasy land of economic theory, all kinds of things 'could' happen, but in the real world, they're extremely unlikely. The trouble is, the likeliest outcome - falling prices for 2 or 3 years and at least 10 - 15 years to recover, isn't news any more.

Dean Hallett, Basingstoke, UK

The trouble is the professor is likening housing to the equity market,where anyone with a vested interest in sales of shares can tell their clients that it has bottomed ,and they will pile in like blind sheep,well houses arent like that and you cant fool any of the people any of the time anymore

david devonport, Great Yarmouth, UK

Some parts of the country (individual postcode sectors) have not had price falls at all, and some are still rising. So it is not strange to surmise that if credit conditions ease, price falls elsewhere can be slowed or reversed.

mac, Manchester, UK

If I buy a house at £100k I pay back the bank £200k over a 25 year mortgage. If I buy a house at £200k I pay the bank £400k over the same period. WHY is Brown so adamant that I must pay an extra £200 000 (or £833/month) to the banks instead of saving it or spending it in the broad economy.

Peter White, Brighton, UK

No wonder the banks have gone to the wall with predictions like that!

How does he think the housing market will recover in the midst of a recession next year and probably the next?

Fanciful.

JonB, Manchester, UK

Danny Wright: "Laura talks any FTB not touching the market for 2 years.Why? So they can buy at the bottom of the market and make a nice profit when prices go up?"

Or perhaps they just don't see any point in paying £150k for something they think they will be able to get for £100k in a year or 2.

Dylan, Rossendale,

"Housing Slump to End Next Year"? Does that mean we will miss out on 2009 altogether and go straight into election year 2010? Great. The we can get rid of Flash Gordon quicker.

albert hall, hove, england

Anybody who pays attention to anything these so-called experts say must be an idiiot. There is only one thing anybody needs to know is that The City is run by fools. I won't buy a house until the prices have totally collapsed. The lowering of interest rates is just a trap for more debt.

Frederick, London, UK

For house prices to "bounce back" one has to assume:that bank shareholders are masochists. Having seen their capital wiped out they are happy to recapitalise the banks just to see their money used to maintain insane lending criteria, maintain employment in the banking sector and pay out city bonuse

Ralph Feldberg, milan, italy

householders must suffer the bitter pill for their insidious for their insidious greed.they,the government and vile bankers have done down decent small shareholders and now fully deserve a catastrophic fall in house prices.a house is a home not a moneybox to feed ones greedy habit.

j r forsyth, braintree, england

Laura talks any FTB not touching the market for 2 years.Why? So they can buy at the bottom of the market and make a nice profit when prices go up? Cant you see this was the problem in the first place? Buy a property to live in it, otherwise your doing the same thing that got us into this mess.

Danny Wright, Upwell, Cambridgeshire

Where are there no flying pigs in the picture?!

Paul, Coventry,

If the chief economist at Morgan Stanley makes predictions like this, no wonder they are doing so badly.

Dan, London,

Would those "sophisticated economic estimates" be the same ones that led to a £500 Billion bailout of the uk banks this very last week, by any chance?

frank james, London, uk

The housing slump will end once prices have fallen back in line with historical levels of affordability, thereby bringing buyers back to the market.

Bil Noe, Piddle,

The next bubble will be manufactured by Brown for the 2010 election and go pop straight after. These experts are the same turkeys that talked up the last bubble. Anyway why rush into ownership? Taxpayer owns the banks, banks own the houses so we are all council tenents really! Even this dingbat.

Rafael, Swindon, England

I would have thought ,that UK "economists" would shut up for a while.

ronnie, bucks, UK

I understand Aussies have a limited understanding of irony; however, may I suggest the irony of the somewhat smug comments coming from down-under given the cost of housing in their own backyard. They seem to be somewhat oblivious of their high ranked status in the housing (un)affordability survey.

Colin the pom down-under, Torquay, Australia/England

Anyone who believes this crisis will be over in twelve months or so should seek medical advice!

Mike O Connor, Plymouth,

It's only a buyer's market if sales are actually being agreed at lower levels than they were previously. Supply is limited because any seller with half a brain is going to hold their house for now - when demand increases (as it will do soon, esp with shortage of new build), then prices will increase

MP, Manchester,

When will people realise that judging affordability by just one criteria, "can I afford the monthly payments?", is not sensible? The lifetime cost of housing is at an all time high. It is only sustainable by ever decreasing interest rates, ever increasing debt. And ever more bail outs. Just stupid.

Bob Jones, London, UK

House prices bear no relation to salaries and what people can afford. There needs to be a maximum lending multiplier for mortage lending and this housing bubble needs to burst, not be prolonged!

Harvey Taylor, Bangkok, Thailand

I just want to buy a house at a sane price. No person with an "important" job title of a failed bank is going to convince me otherwise.

Howard, Manchester,

The facts are these: house prices peaked in 1989 and didn't revert to the same level until 1998 (9 years). This crash is twice as bad, 2 X 9 = 18 and therefore prices will revert to the same level as October 2007 (the peak) in 2025. QED!

Alan Gold, London,

Thanks..Sherlock. No buyers due to crash fears and sellers sitting tight too. Guess the Morgan Stanley "whizzkid" is right about a stand-off in the housing market. Had flat for sale 2 mnths, no takers...rented out within a week. Mortgage still covered. Off travelling. You only live once. Go figure!

Abha, London, UK

Over next year? Come on! The party will be on again tomorrow!

Fabio C, London, uk

calling him professor does not impress anyone. your headline is optimistic based on the opinion of one person who himself is sounding caution and yet also includes several others saying far worse. why not have a headline that says: housing slump continues, one guy is cautiously optimistic, nuff said

pk, london, uk

So AN economist is optimistic but the article shows he is out of step with many others. The catchy headline does not match the overall tone of the piece which is far more balanced. How about 'Morgan Stanley - lone voice of optimism for house prices'

Paul, Houston, USA

Where is the money coming from to reinflate the housing ponzi scheme - I think it should pretty obvious to all (& even to those utterly clueless numpties at Morgan Stanley) that the Chinese and Middle East investors, who have financed the west's bubbles, have had enough

rick, melbourne,

Is this the same David Miles who became "Managing Director and Chief UK Economist at Morgan Stanley in October 2004".

The same Morgan Stanley who is one of nine banks to receive a share of the $250 billion bailout.

What a joke!

Nathan, Southampton,

Yvette Cooper wants lending to resume to 2007 levels and has refused to rule out 125% mortgages from the newly nationalised banks.
More boom on the way, just in time for the next general election.

Gareth Jones, Dusseldorf, Germany

More to the point why would we believe anything that comes from anyone who works in the financial industry or the government at all?

According to them only a year ago there was no risk of a shock to the system sending house prices down. We've been consistently misled by both.

Mike, Edinburgh, UK

Hilarious!! Chief economist at Morgan Stanley, a bank absolutely on its knees and the verge of collapse if it didn't take the parasitic reward-failure bailout a few hours ago??!!

Talk it up as much as you want, any smart FTB wouldn't touch the market for at least 2 years.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

First time buyers will not be given 125% or even 100% mortgages. First time buyers will require to have savings. Savings in the UK have dropped dramatically since 1997. So when will the housing market start to move. My prediction is as soon as Brown resigns we will see an improvement .

WSS, SANDBACH, U.K.

Yeah right, much tighter lending criteria: max 90% and proof of income for a mortgage! More propoganda from a chief economist at a company with a heap of mortgages on its books that doesn't want them to default.

Jon, London,

When markets settle down and lending normalises one should hope that lenders will start lending responsibly. We all know the root cause of the credit problems were caused by irresponsible lending and greed. One should hope the FSA and CML will strictly monitor the income multiples the lenders use.

Joseph, Kingston, UK

Why on earth would we believe anything from the mouth of the chief UK economist at Morgan Stanley!

Terry Evans, Wellington, New Zealand