Going, going, gone

Property auctions have sprung into life in the last few weeks. A seven bed house in a near derelict state at Putney sold for £1.25 million – £400,000 more than the guide price.

The man who bought it said he had considered it last year when it was going for £2 million. But its condition had worsened since then and it was estimated that it would need another million pounds spending on it – including a new roof – to bring it up to scratch.

Another house in Fulham in London went for £702,000 - £177,000 over the guide price. Investors are buying in the hope that the market has either reached bottom or is within 10 or 15 per cent of its lowest point.

Life in the auction sector is a further indication of small shoots of recovery being spotted in the property market.

A big problem currently – as well as a continuing mortgage drought – is a shortage of house and flats to sell. A top property insider said: “ There’s a dearth of houses coming on to the market. People are hanging on in the hope that the market will improve and they’ll get a better price. But if they’re smart this is probably the time to get moving.

The recent good news that the government owned Northern Rock is again to offer 90 per cent mortgages was marred by a follow up announcement that it still intends to pay big bonuses to its bosses.

The latest news has caused more widespread dismay. The stricken bank was saved from collapse by a massive bail out with taxpayers money.

Without the money the bank would have collapsed. Its staff – and the bosses who are now getting fat bonuses – would have been out on the cobbles with the other 3,000 people who are losing their jobs each day in Britain.

Northern Rock lost £1.4 bn in 2008 and it’s been estimated that the cost of saving it with taxpayers money is working out at £3.8 million a day.

It can only start lending again- including offering 90 per cent mortgages - because the government has just pumped another £14bn of taxpayers money into it.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the bank gravy train, former Grand Prix ace Sir Jackie Stewart says he will not give up his £4million a year contract as a so-called global ambassador for one of Britain’s biggest white-elephant banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS is about to axe 30,000 jobs and announce £28bn losses – the biggest in UK corporate history. An RBS insider said: “ God knows what global ambassadors are supposed to do. Presumably it’s important in some way. At that price one certainly hopes so.”

Stewart is among a clutch of sports stars signed up by former RBS supremo, the shamed Sir Fred Goodwin. It’s reckoned Goodwin – named Fred the Shred for the number of staff he culled – went on what newspapers have called a ‘£200 million sponsorship binge.’ Other RBS sports beneficiaries include Zara Phillips the royal horsewoman.

The former director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald says bankers ‘ have done their best to steal our economy’ and must be properly punished for their crimes. He says the regulatory bodies vested with checking reckless behaviour are ‘completely broken.’