Taking the fast- track approach to property

residential property

If investors can afford to invest directly in property this method holds many tax advantages and is more transparent than putting money into funds

The evidence is contradictory about residential property. Even the headline grabbing surveys of performance from the Nationwide, Halifax and ODPM seem to disagree over the short-term future of the market. The long-term future seems equally unclear, with many a doomsayer over the past few years having predicted a crash. Of course the near-term reality has been a soft landing with UK prices correcting from 2004 levels of 17% down to around 5% in 2005, and forecasts for 2006 are similarly conservative. Overall, one could come away with a sense that the market is turbulent and volatile with am...