Flats have been getting a bad rap recently. There is the promised leasehold reform being stuck in the legislative and legal process; the many service charges spiralling far beyond inflation; the post-Grenfell Tower cladding issues blighting sales in hundreds of blocks across the country.To all these negatives must now be added an admission that the value of many flats is plummeting, especially in London – a turn of events which is prompting wildly conflicting responses. On the one hand, are those hailing the price falls with glee – whether as evidence that prices have long been inflated, that investment in property, as in the stock market, can go down as well as up, or as nemesis for greedy housebuilders and investors. Nor is it only frustrated renters eyeing the lower prices, but smug house-owners, congratulating themselves on buying a property that usually comes freehold.On the other hand, are those for whom the effect of lower flat prices is perverse, as highlighted in these pages last week. For many first-time buyers even these flat prices remain out of reach, while those who stretched their finances to buy a small entry-level flat are now trapped in negative equity for such time as the flat depression goes on. For them, this is a salutary warning that ‘the ladder’ can be a fickle and sometimes cruel metaphor.

It is high time that more people supplemented their British dream of a house with a garden

It is high time that more people supplemented their British dream of a house with a garden

Perhaps one day, though, this hostile tide will turn. And, as a mostly contented flat-dweller for more than 40 years – as a leaseholder (in the UK) or renter (abroad) – I hope that it will. With housing generally at a premium, it is high time that more people supplemented their British dream of a house with a garden with a........

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