Waiting for values to fall

They have just accepted an offer on their Notting Hill flat but Simon and Miranda Davis have not even started looking for somewhere to buy.

Instead they will rent a house while they ride out the predicted property price crash. The two-bedroom period apartment, on the market for about £375,000, is no longer big enough for their family.

With 14-month-old Jasmine and another baby on the way, they want more bedrooms and a garden. "To make that leap at the moment is too much money, so we'd have to move out to some Godforsaken suburb," said Simon, 31. So they will rent a four-bedroom cottage in a Cotswolds village. Including travel, it will cost no more than their current outgoings.

"I will stay with my parents in Pimlico during the week and my wife and daughter will come up one day a week. We'll rent for 12 months and see what happens to the market." He added it was also a test to see if living in the country was practical.