With the US subprime crisis spreading to Europe, shockwaves in Northern Rock which would spread to other banks, UK economy growth not looking healthy, increasing trade deficits, sharply rising mortgage costs, falling corporate profits and job cuts especially in the City, and as market turmoils escalates, housing price which shows a first drop of 2.6% (from Rightmove last month), this are the signs of the beginning of a housing crash. PROPERTY SHARES ARE A SELL!

Wolseley downgraded - MoneyAM

Credit Suisse has today downgraded shares in Wolseley to 'underperform' from 'neutral'.

The brokerage also dropped its target price to 850p from 1,150p, citing a continued deterioration in the US housing market.

In a note published this morning, the broker said it has also lowered its full-year 2008 and 2009 estimates for the specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products and supplier of building materials by 11% and 7% respectively, noting that it feels that while the share price may still present longer-term value, the operational hurdles faced by US Building Materials in the coming months skew risk to the downside.

The broker noted that its full-year 2008 profit before tax amortisation estimate of 751m for Wolseley puts it 14% below company-guided consensus, but added that the share price has underperformed the FTSE100 by around 8% since early August, suggesting the market has already priced in a downgrade.

Credit Suisse added that, while it remains broadly in-line in terms of the upcoming full-year 2007 numbers, its updated full-year 2008 forecasts also place it 14% below consensus estimates.

Hammerson, the FTSE 100 property developer, has warned that the City office market is in danger of being damaged by the fall-out from the continuing turbulence in the financial markets.

The warning from the developer of the old London Stock Exchange building will send shudders through Britain's 700 billion commercial property market as it marks the first time a large UK commercial developer with a direct vested interest in the capital has raised the red flag over its health.

The warning from Hammerson comes just days after The Times revealed that property industry experts have pencilled in a significant risk of the City vacancy rates doubling next year if banks suddenly pull their requirements for new space in the face of falling profits.

It would, in turn, cause the last two years of soaring City rent rises to come to a halt or even trigger rent falls by 2009. Since then Macquarie, the Australian bank, has put its search for new City premises on hold.

A fall in rents could also trigger falls in capital values of buildings where cheap borrowing had until this spring unleashed unprecedented demand for buying commercial property.

As illustrated in most of the charts above people have been selling for months.

are you always six months late with your threads - what a waste of space

Well, I have been shorting some of these for the past 4 months.

More shorting on these...it has been worthwhile.

Course you have Hlyeo, of course you have, so unlike you to keep quiet for so long. Ever thought of becoming a stock ambulance chaser?

hehe I can see someone is caught in the web.

HYLEO ..... not clear if you mean "sell prop SHARES" or "sell physical houses" ..... if you mean the latter, then for sure you are talking bollocks ....... it would comne as no surprise if house prices in general stagnated or even fell back a little, for it is (imo) self-apparent that the rises over the last few years are unsustainable .... however, quality property in the right location will always be in high demand, even if selling them takes a little longer than of late

this child needs sending back to the dark side!

I've believed for a couple of years that house prices will crash. It's only a matter of time IMO.