Dropping Property:It's not just here: house prices all over the world are dropping, according to the Global Property Guide.

Of the 32 countries studied by the guide, 27 saw price falls over the year to the end of March. The biggest fall was in Latvia, with apartment prices in Riga halving, closely followed by Dubai, where prices were down 35 per cent. But some countries seemed immune to the global property gloom: house prices in Switzerland are up 4.3 per cent, while prices in Thailand, Austria and Israel have bounced back.