Britain is hailed as the great property owning democracy of Europe and, with the stock market struggling to recover and major concerns about pensions, many people in the Midlands are "investing in bricks and mortar" to secure their future.
But property lawyer Victoria Grundon, from Young & Lee, counsels caution
Property owners in this country are in the majority whereas in Europe many more people from all levels of society rent their homes.
In recent times there has been a growing trend in the UK for people to look to bricks and mortar to secure their futures as an alternative to more traditional investment and at Young & Lee we are seeing the backwash and it's not all good news.
Mass property ownership is relatively new. Before the end of the Second World War most people, including professional people, rented either from a private landlord or the local council.
Home ownership accelerated steadily in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and took a leap forward in the Thatcher years, fuelled by legislation giving tenants the right to buy and the deregulation of financial services making it much easier for people to borrow money they all too often cannot really afford.
In 1945 most people in Britain rented their accommodation. Homeownership accounted for only 40 per cent of all households. By 1971 this proportion had increased to just over half, by 1981 to 56 per cent, by 1991 to 66 per cent, and to 68 per cent today.
All of this has engendered a culture in which getting in hock to the mortgage lender or credit card company is part of modern life and leaves the UK as the property owning and debt king of Europe.
There is no doubt that some people have done very well out of property but like any form of investment it can go down as well as up, and if you don't believe me ask the hundreds of thousands of people caught out by negative equity or repossession.
On top of this we see reported regularly in this newspaper and elsewhere the social implications of leaving housing and property to unconstrained market forces.
We see the huge problems in this region in places like Herefordshire and South Worcestershire where local people struggle to get a foot on the property ladder, accelerating a pattern of rural decline and poverty.
The rented sector, such as it is, has undergone major change. At one time most people who rented their homes did so from the local authority, with Birmingham City Council the biggest landlord in Europe.
Increasingly local authorities have devolved their housing stock to Housing Associations. The charitable sector is also a significant landlord often involved in schemes to provide "affordable housing".
We are also seeing the comeback of the private landlord and very often these are 'ordinary' people tempted by the prospect of "buy to let" investment providing a better return than stocks and shares or a traditional pension.
The theory is simple - buy a property, often on mortgage, and let it out, using the income to pay off the borrowing and rake off a bit of extra income while at the same time having someone else pay for a rapidly appreciating asset.
It sounds a win-win no-brainer but it's not quite as simple as it sounds. There are pitfalls and I am increasingly finding myself helping pick up the pieces for people who have fallen into the pit.
So often I find people for whom the dream has turned into a nightmare. Finding a tenant is not hard but finding a good one can be much more problematic and the consequences of getting it wrong can be horrendous.
Once in, getting a tenant to leave is far from straightforward even if they are in arrears or wrecking the property.
The essential first step is being careful with the selection process and ensuring a proper agreement is in place. I never stop being amazed by the number of homeowners who let the property on "a nod and a wink" and live to bitterly regret it.
There is also a tendency to leave it too long after things start to go wrong - arrears running into thousands of pounds are common before any action is taken.
Even if everything is done by the book and prompt action taken it will take at least three months to get a tenant out and that involves going to court, getting a possession order and, if all else fails, bringing in the bailiffs.
Do it wrong and it can taken an awful lot longer and can leave the property owner on the wrong side of the law. Tenants, even very bad tenants, have rights and asking them to go, and simply turning up and changing the locks, is not allowed.
I have known people who have purchased a buy to let property on mortgage, been unable to collect the rent they were depending on to make the repayments, and ended up facing repossession action from the lender.
As well as financial problems resulting from a tenancy that goes pear-shaped, there is the emotional strain. More than once I have seen people driven to mental breakdown.
But you can eliminate the strain by putting your property in the hands of a letting agent. Hardly - too often the priority of the agent is to get a tenant in, no matter what their suitability.
The agent will manage the property at a not inconsiderable cost but ultimately problems rest with the owner. Done properly, and with good luck, property can be a very good investment but it is not the trouble-free lottery win some would have you believe. n Victoria Grundon is a property lawyer with Birmingham and Black Country solicitors Young & Lee.
