Blame the estate agents!

For some reason, a lot of people blame estate agents for the past ten years of rampant and ridiculous house price inflation.

Agreed, yes, life is particularly easy for estate agents in general when house prices are rising - but by the same token, with easier profits comes more competition. Conversely, their life becomes much more difficult in a falling market, and then they long for the days of low-but-stable house prices.

So, for the next year or two we will no doubt hear horror stories about estate agents talking the market down again.