House prices are falling across large parts of the country, which could signal the end of the 11-year property boom.

Mortgage approvals in April have also fallen, this time to a 12-month low in another indication of weakening home buyer demand.

Official figures from the Land Registry (the most reliable source of house price information) showed prices dropping in 4 of the 10 ten regions into which it divides England and Wales; this is the first time in 7 years that prices have fallen in so many areas in a single month.

The overall national figure still shows a rise, but this is because the continuing property boom in London continues to distort the bigger picture.

In other parts of the country, the bubble appears to be bursting as there were falls of up to 1.1% in April in the North-East, the South-West, the North-West and Yorkshire and Humber.

Because the report covers April, it does not include the effects of the latest interest rate increase earlier this month; the situation now is likely to be even worse as a result.

Across the country, the average house price rose by 0.6% in April, but this was fuelled by a 2.3% jump in London.

As a result, those outside the capital can be confused by monthly property figures which show prices soaring. They are often in stark contrast to their own experience as the value of their home goes down or increases only slightly.

The London property market is fuelled both by rich foreigners and the huge salaries and bonuses paid to City workers and other professionals meaning they are not affected by rising interest rates in the way most buyers are.

In the year to April, the Land Registry reveals, prices in some parts of London shot up by 24 % a year with homes in the in the capital have been increasing in value by a staggering £124 a day.

They have soared so fast, (to an average of £335,000) that many families could not afford to buy their own homes at today's prices.

For the rest of the country, four rate rises since last summer has made buying a property almost mission impossible!

The rises (to a six-year high of 5.5%) have added nearly £1,200 a year to the cost of repaying a £150,000 mortgage. If the rate rises again to 6% later this year (as some experts predict) the situation would become even more painful.

The worrying Registry figures come a few days after one of Britain's top property experts warned that the housing market boom will grind to a halt later this year.

Richard Donnell, director of research at the property information firm Hometrack, said the boom could finally be coming to an end.

By the end of the year, he predicts, house prices will be rising at an annual rate of just 4%, which is below the current inflation rate of 4.5%, and this will be a sharp shock for the UK's 18 million homeowners, who have got used to prices rising by up to 26% a year!

So, is the end really in sight for the property boom or is it just another rumour to make us worry?

Some of us are happy when we find some loose change down the back of the sofa, while others are ecstatic when we find that that extra tenner in our jeans just before putting them in the washing machine!

But when it comes to windfalls most of us are only interested in the big money!

Nearly two-thirds of us it say it would take a handout of at least £100,000 to change our lives!

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) recent survey showed that 62% of us believe a six-figure sum would be needed to have a noticeable impact on our lifestyle!

10% of us think that £2 million or more would be needed before we really noticed a difference!

Unsurprisingly, given their domination of the best-paid jobs, it is men who yearn most for the big pay day; 67% wanted more than £100,000 to improve their lifestyle compared to only 58% of women.

According to NS&I, a paltry 6% of us said we would be happy with only £1,000.

Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at the University of Warwick and a contributor to the BBC series The Happiness Formula said, "We have done research which shows that a cash windfall of just £1,000 has a marked effect on a person's happiness even two years after the event. So these people are perhaps kidding themselves a little if they think they need such a large amount."

Not that we are likely to go crazy with all our new found wealth! 20% of the 2,000 surveyed said they would pay off their overdraft and credit cards, with a further 14% claiming they would use the cash to move to a better home.

So, would £1,000 make you happy or are you dreaming of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Just how much money would it take to make you feel happy?

HIPS may not be flavour of the month but it is definitely topic of the month!

According to a recent report, the government's u-turn on its controversial home information packs (HIPs) scheme has cost the average seller around £5,000.

Propertyfinder.com said supply jumped during spring as the homeowners among us rushed to sell our properties before 1 June, when the government had planned to make HIPs mandatory in England and Wales.

Propertyfinder said the surge in supply helped to drive down prices, with sellers accepting offers below their asking price in April and May.

The average seller sold up for 2.3% below the figure they had hoped to achieve in April -- equivalent to £5,534!

In May, sellers accepted offers of 1.8% or £4,320 below their asking price!

Nicholas Leeming, a director of Propertyfinder.com said "Although it is good news for home buyers who have got their properties cheaper, the U-turn is hitting home sellers in the pocket. Supply has already tightened again and sellers who have rushed to sell but not yet purchased property may find the buyer/seller power shift reverses quickly, leaving them out of pocket."

The Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly said on May 22 that HIPs would be phased in from August 1, because not enough energy assessors had been trained to allow the scheme to go ahead when planned.

HIPs shift most of the burden of gathering information about a property prior to sale from the buyer to the seller. But they will no longer have to include a full survey of the property (which would have been the most expensive part) following huge objections.

The government says the packs, (expected to cost sellers around £500), are needed to speed up the process of buying a house and help reduce carbon emissions from homes.

However critics have said they bring little benefit to consumers and will have an adverse effect on the housing market.

So, has HIPS left you out of pocket? If not, do you think it still will?

After all the recent fuss about them, should they just be scrapped altogether?

Definitions Terms and Conditions Our Rights Privacy Policy Copyright, Trademark, and Site Content Our Liability to You Indemnity Third Party Links The Money Hospital Miscellaneous

Definitions

The following words have the following meanings:

"Terms" means these terms and conditions;

"Product Provider" means any business, insurance company, life office, broker and administration provider, operator of a collective investment scheme, fund manager, bank, building society or any other financial institution or corporation providing a product or service;

"We/Us/Our" means Addeva which is a product of Add Momentum Limited;

"You" means the user of the website.

Terms and Conditions

This website is used to help you to select products and services to meet your individual needs. For some of these products we must obtain certain information from you about your personal and financial circumstances.

The information that you give us will then be passed by us to potential providers and researchers who will use that information and respond with the terms they are prepared to offer.

These Terms apply to your use of our website. If you are not over 18 or not living in the United Kingdom you will not be able to use this website and you should not attempt to make an application, although subject to your acceptance of these Terms you should feel free to browse. If you do not agree to be bound by the Terms set out below you should not use this website.

Our Rights

We reserve the right at any time to modify or withdraw, temporarily or permanently, the website or any part of it without notice to you and we will not be liable to you in any way for any modification or withdrawal of the website. We also reserve the right to modify these Terms without reference to you.

We reserve the right at any time to refuse to process a transaction for any reason. We will not be liable to you or any third party by reason of our failing to process a transaction.

By making an application for any financial investment or insurance you expressly authorise us to transmit information or to obtain information about you from third parties from time to time, including but not limited to your credit reports, in order to authenticate your identity (see Privacy Policy below for more details).

Privacy Policy

The law requires us to have your consent before we use any personal information you give us or pass on to any third parties connected with us.

In order for us to properly deal with your requirements, you agree that by utilising our services: 1) The information we hold about you can be held on computer and/or paper files. 2) Any information that you give us may be disclosed to selected third parties (e.g. product providers and fraud prevention agencies) for the purposes of processing your application. 3) We may use the information that we can hold about you to contact you from time to time by post, fax, e-mail or telephone to bring to your attention additional products or services, which may be of benefit to you. 4) We may transfer and store some information outside of the European Economic Area for the purposes of security backups and disaster recovery. By accepting this policy you consent to this information being transferred for these purposes to our servers which are located in the United States of America. 5) We (and any third party to whom we have passed your information with your consent) may use the information that we, or they, hold about you to contact you from time to time by post, fax, e-mail or telephone to bring to your attention additional products or services which may be of benefit to you. We may track the pages visited on this website to bring you such further information.

You have the right, at any time, to withdraw any consent given by you above, or obtain a copy of the information that we hold about you, by writing to:

Data Protection Manager, Addeva, Add Momentum Ltd., St Brandon's House, 29, Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5QT

You will be charged a fee of £10 to cover the administration costs involved for obtaining a copy of the information we hold about you.

Copyright, Trademark, and Site Content

You acknowledge and accept that all copyright, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights in all material or content provided as part of the website belong to us, or a Product Provider. You may download material from this site for your own use only. No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials is transferred to you by such downloading.

Any other use of the material and content of the website is strictly prohibited and you agree not to copy, reproduce, transmit, publish, display, distribute, commercially exploit or create derivative works of such material except with our written consent.

Our Liability to You

While we will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure the accuracy of any information placed on the website, we make no representations or give any warranties of any kind with respect to this site or its contents and we disclaim all representations, except where fraudulently made, and warranties.

In addition we make no representations or warranties about the accuracy or the information contained on this website. The information provided to you in connection with the products is provided by the Product Providers and you acknowledge that we have no liability to you with respect to the accuracy of such information. As we rely on information given to us by third parties there may be a time delay in keeping that information up to date. You should therefore check the accuracy of the information.

The website may not cover all Product Providers in the market. These disclaimers do not attempt to disclaim liability for matters that cannot be excluded under any applicable English law.

We make no warranty that the website will meet your requirements or will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or bugs or represents the full functionality, accuracy or reliability of the materials. We will not be liable to you for any loss of content or material uploaded or transmitted through the website.

We cannot guarantee that a Product Provider will be able to deliver a product or service at any particular time. We do not accept any liability in the event of withdrawal of any offering or for rejection of your application by the Product Provider for any reason whatsoever.

Neither we, nor any of our directors, agents or employees will be liable for damages arising out of or in connection with your use of this site. This is a comprehensive limitation of liability that applies to all damages of any kind, including, without limitation, compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, income or profit, loss or damage to property and claims of third parties. We do not exclude any liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or that of our directors, agents or employees.

This website is designed to provide you with general information only and does not attempt to give you advice or recommendation on any particular product or service. In particular for financial products and services, if you have any doubt as to whether a particular product or service is suitable for you, you should contact an Independent Financial Adviser.

Indemnity

In using this website, we require that you abide by these Terms. If you fail to abide by them, and this failure causes us to suffer a claim, action, liability, or loss because of your failure to abide by these Terms, you agree to indemnify us, on demand, for all costs and expenses, including legal fees, which arise out of your failure to abide by these Terms.

Third Party Links

In the event that there are third party links to other websites for your convenience, you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the availability or functionality of such external sites. We do not endorse the content of any external sites and are not responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any loss however caused to you by your use of any external site.

The Money Hospital

Users of our site may submit comments for publication on the Money Hospital blog. We accept no liability in respect of any material submitted by users and published by us and we are not responsible for its content and accuracy. If you would like to submit material to Money Hospital for publication, you may do so by complying with the following terms and conditions: 1) Publication of any material you submit to us will be at our sole discretion and we reserve the right to refuse publication. 2) You grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide licence to republish any comments you submit to us in any format, including, without limitation, print and electronic format. 3) You warrant that the comments you submit are not obscene, offensive, defamatory of any person/company or otherwise illegal. 4) You acknowledge that any breach of these warranties may cause us damage or loss and you agree to indemnify us in full against any third party liabilities, claims, costs, loss or damage we incur as a result of publishing comments you submit to us, including consequential losses.

Miscellaneous

The information on this website is for residents of the UK only. We shall not be liable to you where performance of any of our obligations to you is prevented, frustrated or impeded by any circumstance or cause beyond our control. If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable as a matter of law, all other parts of these Terms shall not be affected and shall remain in force. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and the English courts shall have jurisdiction over any disputes between us.

We've mentioned before about firms charging you to help you get back your bank penalty charges.

Regulators are now investigating the tactics of theses "no-win-no-fee" firms. The newly-formed Ministry of Justice is looking at the tactics used by these types of firms, including cold-calling.

Since the campaign to recover penalty charges took off, more than 30 no-win-no-fee firms have started up. Most offer to recover your bank charges for a fee of about 25%, but consumer groups say you can do this for yourselves.

In addition, BBC Radio 4's Today programme discovered that the Information Commission is probing the tactics of these firms. The Information Commission is responding to complaints from some members of the public relating to unsolicited automated telephone messages.

The Commission told the BBC that it has written to one claim firm to tell them that such automated messages could breach the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

Leading Consumer groups have warned people against responding to unsolicited calls. "People can stick up for themselves rather than go to these firms, some of which are charging high prices for their work," said Mark Gander, spokesman for the Consumer Action Group.

"There is an organisation that is actually claiming to be us which is cold calling people in this way. This is tremendously damaging. The idea of cold calling in this way is disgraceful, anyone involved in this deserves the label of ambulance chaser," Mr. Gander added.

On Tuesday, a judge in Birmingham found in favour of Lloyds TSB after it was sued by a customer for imposing supposedly unfair overdraft penalty charges.

The BBC has now learned that the judge in the case has written to a no-win-no-fee firm warning them that by completing legal forms on behalf of claimants they may be unlawfully acting as a solicitor.

Using a no win no nee firm to get back your penalty charges can save you time and effort, but not always money.

As we have said before, there are plenty of free resources you can use, and after hearing that these types of companies are being investigated, it might make sense to avoid them even more!