The days of generous bank funding for new housing and apartment developments seems to be over as banks tighten up the purse strings. For years they were willing to provide the funding, not only to buy sites, but to develop at least the first phase in their quest to get as much of the action as possible. Not any more. Many developers planning to launch schemes over the next few months have come under pressure from their banks to produce a solid list of sale contracts before they can go on site. For this reason some developers who would normally complete housing units before offering them for sale are now being forced to sell off the plans to impress the bank manager.

However, with house prices hardly moving up, developers are unlikely to lose out by the time they close the sales in about nine months.

Some of the units are clearly priced on the high side, and again this could be just to please the bankers because it is certainly not impressing the buyers who may just decide to hold off and see what happens. The stand-off by the banks is also certain to affect the value of housing sites, particularly those that do not have planning permission and will be subject to the 20 per cent social housing rule introduced by the Government. These are likely to take a hammering over the coming months as the banks pull in their horns because of their over exposure to the property market.