Telegraph: Sofa surfing: C-ouch! Crisis hits home

There is nothing like a recession to focus adult minds on making life more practical and affordable. In times like these, the yachts, the horses - and the second homes - have to go. There are many more pied-a-terres on the market now. Business-people are selling their crash-pads and crashing on sofas instead. "I had assumed that sofa-surfers would be hippie travellers, but people making bookings tend to be business people in the UK. My first booking was from a businessman based in Portsmouth who stayed on a futon in a drawing room in Brixton which was much more cost-effective than a hotel and nicer than a hostel. It is a wonderfully inexpensive way of staying in town." [More sales and less rental demand = falling prices and downward pressure on rents. Sweeeeeet!]