Anyone considering investing in the British residential property market should note some revised forecasts for growth there. International property consultancy, FPD Savills, has scaled back its forecasts for 1999, suggesting the market has slowed. Though not predicting dire consequences in the form of future house price falls, Savills had forecast a 9 per cent rise in mortgaged house prices for 1998. This was considerably higher than most other commentators at the time and it believes this will reflect the full year outturn. In 1999 though it now signals a slow-down with the price of residential property rising by just 4.5 per cent over the entire year.

The consultants maintain that the boom-bust cycle seems to have disappeared from the British mortgage market for the time being as house prices have not had the chance to become overvalued as they were in previous cycles.