"_blank"> The Motley Fool UK: Fool's Eye View 20/07/2004 Blah, blah, blah! Do you ever ask yourself how useful all these surveys and house price indices are?

BBC NEWS | Business | DTI plans estate agent crackdown Estate agents will have to join an industry wide ombudsman scheme the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has proposed.

Mirror.co.uk - FIRST-TIME BUYERS EXCUSED STAMP DUTY STAMP duty for first-time buyers is set to be axed.

BBC NEWS | Business | Bank unanimous on freezing rates Members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously against a third successive rate rise at July's meeting.

This is London: Homes unsold as investors lose nerve After a 10-year bull run, the big agents are all reporting sales significantly lower in the past month. Many of the lots are going unsold as investors take a more realistic and cautious approach.

This is Money: Buy-to-let landlords rush to sell Thousands of buy-to-let landlords are poised to sell, threatening to tip the entire housing market into a devastating collapse.

BBC NEWS | Business | UK mortgage lending rises sharply Mortgage lending rose sharply in June, figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA) have shown.

Telegraph | Money | It's a buyer's market as rate rises begin to bite Further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market will be revealed this week with the publication of two influential housing surveys. They claim recent interest rate rises have cooled property inflation, creating a "buyer's market".

Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event The booming housing market is beginning to show signs of slowing down as the impact of four interest rate rises begins to bite, new figures suggest.

Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event Plans that could treble council tax for people in the most expensive houses in Britain are set to be announced this week.