The buy-to-let market, which many have turned to as an alternative to unsatisfactory pension investments, is looking less attractive as surveyors report a decline in rents.

ECONOMIST: Housing

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) report said its members were "cautiously optimistic" that this trend would continue.

BBC: Couple looking in estate agent window

Scottish chartered surveyors also continued to report drops in prices, as a net balance of 12% more respondents claimed that prices had dipped.

BBC: Couple looking in estate agent window

Surveyors who found the piece called authorities to report that they'd found "apparently damaged machinery, " police said.

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Thomas Baird, of Select Surveyors in Glasgow, said the number of Home Report instructions it had received had remained steady.

BBC: Couple looking in estate agent window

Yet a report this week from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors painted a grim picture of falling house prices, lower inquiries from new buyers and rising stocks of property on estate agents' books.

ECONOMIST: Economic troubles: When the credit dries up | The