A tipping point has been reached in the UK housing market and short-term price falls are expected. However, as Yolande Barnes, head of residential research at property adviser Savills explains, the doom mongers are not having it all their own way.

After a mid-year review of its forecasts, Savills residential research has restated its belief that UK house prices are on the cusp of further falls. But, they say, this will not be another crash that will take values back to their nadir, rather a second slip that erodes some of the unsustainable price rises of the last 15 months.

"This will not be a repeat of 2008 as some doomsters have suggested, but a necessary short term correction of recent growth, which was driven by abnormal market conditions rather than fundamental demand and wealth," says Barnes. "The market now faces short-term price falls, followed by a period of low or zero growth."