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Is this the end of the conventional residential market?
One simple way of measuring the effect of the economic slowdown on the residential market would be to compare the number of units sold to owner-occupiers from January to May this year with the number sold in the same period last year.
The adjacent chart shows that comparison for inner London, but the story is the same across the capital - sales to owner-occupiers in the first half-year are down, from 60% in 2007 to 36% in 2008.
There are also other indicators we need to look for which may not only point toward a downturn, but also in...