It is actually harder to trade up in the "down market" here...the banks are watching the media too.  They see 'house prices fall...property market slow' etc etc.  They are now including conditions in mortgage documents requiring the customer to have Sale Agreed on their own home before they will allow drawdown of the mortgage for their new home.  This then either creates a long chain of people waiting on the purchasers of their home to sell their respective home or vendors refusing to sell to you until they receive a letter from YOUR bank telling them that YOU have been sanctioned for a mortgage and bridging!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde