Since its launch in York more than three years ago, A Quick Sale has relied heavily on local newspaper advertising to expand rapidly. It now handles over 2,000 home purchases per year: many are three bedroomed semi-detached homes in the £100,000-£150,000 bracket, in the Midlands and the North.

Says Mr Watters: "The idea of losing 20% of the value of your property in return for a quick sale is more acceptable to those with cheaper properties.

"It is less likely to appeal to owners of large detached homes in the Home Counties."

Around a third of the properties he purchases continue to be lived in by the same family - as tenants, rather than struggling owner-occupiers.

Says Mr Watters: "When it is a good, lettable property with a reasonable yield, our offer can be within 10%-15% of open market value. On rural, one-off properties, we might reduce our offer by 25%.

"Typically we offer 80%-85% of open market value. We turn quite a few properties down, and quite a few of our offers get turned down by owners."

But Mr Watters says pressing personal financial problems now trigger around half the purchases which his company handles - against 15-20% three years ago. That's why more companies are entering the sector.

Owners in trouble, he says, are often attracted by the speed of sales which can be arranged if the bailiffs are threatening: deals can be concluded within seven days, but most take three or four weeks.

Jim Akin, who set up the rival UK Property Bank in March 2005, says: "At the beginning, we asked what proportion of the value of a property people would be prepared to give up, in return for a rapid sale.

"We have been buying at 80% of open market value on average, and up to 85% on occasions, and we aim to hit 90% at some stage as we become more efficient."

Mr Akin has arranged funding to buy in 600 homes a year by 2008 - but even that will still represent a tiny share of the overall market.

With even the worst case scenario from economic forecasters currently suggesting house price falls of around 10%, owner-occupiers clearly ought to keep on paying the mortgage for as long as they possibly can.

Taking the cash might be tempting - but it could be years before sellers get back into owner-occupation, if indeed they ever do. Before they decide to sell up, owner-occupiers should at least ask their lender if the burden of their repayments can be eased for a short period, possibly by an extension of the repayment term to allow a payments holiday.

:: INFORMATION: A Quick Sale (0800 328 8239 and www.a-quicksale.co.uk); UK Property Bank (01740 645 577 and at www.ukpb.co.uk).

:: NORTHERN IRELAND LANDLORDS HAVE HIT JACKPOT

Helped by soaring property price rises, landlords in Northern Ireland saw a staggering return on their investment of nearly 36% in one year, says the latest analysis of the Buy to Let (BTL) market from specialist lender Birmingham Midshires (BM), a subsidiary of Halifax.

Nationally, claims BM, the average total return for a BTL investor in the year to June 2007 was 13%, against 11.9% in the year to June 2006.

But in Northern Ireland, landlords cashed in on a huge surge in house prices, and with rents on top, they enjoyed an annual return of 35.9%.

There were big dividends too for landlords in Scotland (16.6%) and the South-East (13.9%). The poorest return for BTL investors was in the East Midlands (9.6%). Wales also generated a smaller return, with prices rising by only 5.7% in the year.

BM says terraced houses proved the best investment during 2006/7: they cost an average £116,884 and generate a total return of just under 16%.

The average price paid for a BTL property was £141,776 - against £196,525 in the owner-occupied market. The lower figure is explained by the fact that investment properties tend to be flats and small houses.

Although average rents enjoyed by BTL landlords rose 4.5% to £651 per month, the biggest rises were in Northern Ireland (7.8%) and Scotland (6.3%).

Tim Crawford, BM Group Economist, says: "The fundamentals of the BTL sector remain sound. While house price growth is expected to be more subdued near term, the potential for further increases in rents should encourage long-term investors."

The BM analysis claims that demand for private rented accommodation will remain high - "due to a combination of the difficulties many young people face in being able to buy their own home, the ongoing significant increase in the student population and the substantial rise in immigration".

These factors are expected to push rents higher in the short term, and lead to continued capital appreciation in the longer term.

According to Hamptons Mortgages, buy-to-let mortgage business could overtake the mainstream residential mortgage market during 2007; buy to let mortgages in June accounted for nearly 23% of all loans, while residential purchases decreased to 28% of all loans, down almost 8% since December 2006.

Hamptons says buy-to-let purchasers typically borrowed at 84% loan to value (LTV) in June - a rising percentage because lenders are easing their borrowing criteria.

Says Jonathan Cornell at Hamptons Mortgages: "Further rate rises will only serve to halt more first time buyers from entering the housing market and make rented accommodation ever more necessary."

:: BUILDERS START MORE NEW HOMES

Gordon Brown wants his Premiership to produce more new homes - preferably 3 million of them by 2020 - and figures from the National HouseBuilding Council (NHBC) show builders were already upping their output in the final days of Tony Blair.

NHBC statistics show the number of applications to start new homes across the UK increased 5% year-on-year in the March-May quarter of 2007. The rise was entirely accounted for by a 42% surge to 10,600 in the number of starts for housing associations - which provide public sector low cost homes for sale or rental.

The Housing Market Report (HMR) from The Home Builders Federation also suggests life got much tougher for builders trying to sell homes in the private sector during May: there was a modest decline in net reservations during the month, measured against "exceptional" levels of reservations in May 2006, and builders increased their use of sales incentives.

However, the HMR says there is still no clear sign of a market slowdown - although the share of new homes accounted for by apartments is at last beginning to fall as builders produce more terraced houses.

Builders have also faced accusations of hoarding land to cash in on house price rises: HMR says larger housebuilders hold an average 2.4 years of land with full implementable planning permission.

Only 2.6% of sites had not been started within three months of planning permission being granted.

ends