If a major property auction held in London this week is anything to go by, a dreadful story is about to unfold that could engulf the bonanza that was Britain’s new-build buy-to-let sector.

CityWire, Richard Lander – Friday 21 September 2007

The auction, organised by Barnard Marcus and held in the plush Café Royal on Regent Street, featured 255 lots ranging from a parking space in Hackney (reserve price £6,000) to a terrace of five buildings in south east London which failed to sell despite attracting bids of £2.1 million.

Among the lots were several entries to which the dreaded words ‘by order of the mortgagees in possession’ were appended – repossessions in other words, where the owner had figuratively tossed in the keys to the bank or building society which was now trying to get some of its money back – full article