There are some pretty mean comments on here. Most new landlords are in this as an alternative strategy to a pension, me included. Does that make us greedy?! Don't worry everyone things will recover, it is only a loss if you sell. I won't be. In 20 years time we will be the ones with a pension!

Matt, Leeds, UK

Where is the fraud? If I sell a property at a "discounted" price I am not defrauding anyone. Any statement of that kind is just puffery. A different matter if the actual amount paid is misrepresented to the lender, of course.

Charles, Charlottesville,

BLT? Isn't that some sort of sandwich?

Tern, Manchester, UK

one thing worth considering if your pension has been eroded by the government and savings taxed and you cant start a business a BLT would look attarctive but like any other investment it can go up or down. but the investors should not be villified in principle. As usual there are a few bad apples

stephen, london,

This hasn't only come to light now. The Head of Fraud for RBS group and the SFO were told in 2006 about the frauds and given evidence about how they are done. Cambridgeshire Constabulary were given evidence of the actual purchases in Peterborough and did nothing. But they were making money then.

Kerry O'Donoghue, Ennis, Ireland

Robert or Aberdeen, UK. I have to agree with you. It was these same greedy investors that pushed the price of low cost housing up and up to such levels that our young population could no longer afford to buy a home. Now let's get house prices back down to a more realistic level that is affordable.

Tom Weatherley, Gloucester, UK

Totally Agree, The money grabbing people who have looked to prosper on the back of those who cant afford to buy deserve all they get with the current financial situation.
My biggest issue however is with the banks who basically threw money at people who they knew could not really afford to repay,

David , Balmedie , Scotland

If you can't spot the sucker at your table, it's probably you...

Tom, Oxford, UK

Surely the moral is not to put all your eggs in one basket. I have been a mug buying a precipice fund - luckily I got compensation - and staying too long in "technology shares" but these losses were only a quarter of my investments. I only critcise buy to let victims for tactical errors.

George Barker, Ringwood, England

Unlucky. As we say in the trade..

Ronnie, Bridego Bridge, Uk

'And lose and start again at your beginnings......you'll be a man my son'. Those in this unfortunate position should remember these famous words from Kipling's poem 'If'.

john, milton keynes,

Kim, Many of us saw it coming and paid off all debts several years ago. These people wanted a safe return for now work and there is no such thing. No risk = no return. They were just greedy and now they whine. Not being smug just checking the numbers.

paul j. weighell, Purley, England

Well well Kim from London. You're asking, "Who in this room saw the crash coming?" I did, for one. As well as any other sensible individual who realised that you could not have something for nothing. Not for long, at least :-)

Andrew, London, UK

To Kim in London, anyone with half a brain could see the crash coming, both in the UK and North America.

Dave, Toronto, Canada

Buy-to-let inflated house prices, so more people had to rent instead of buy, enriching those fortunate enough to be able to be landlords.
A redistribution of wealth from poor to rich, which should have been taxed out of existance. It would be poetic justice if these greedy people paid the price!

Darren, Flintshire,

Whilst I agree with most of the comments here and one must accept that an investment may devalue, I think it is also worthwhile to note that many BTLers only did so because pension funds were being robbed, savings highly taxed etc. All thanks to a series of feckless governments.

Murphy, Glasgow,

We need scams like this to hurt the parasite landlords. The perpitrators are heros to me, and many other people.

dave, london,

buy to let is a pension option for people that dont trust the stock market but buying in boom is never a good idea look after your own deals a middle man will be taking the profit.

mike, cheltenham,

Great comments all you people already posted. I agree with you.

Can't have sympathy for people overpaying as they bought at top of market - bad investment - their fault.

There will always be an up and down cycle in the economic cycle.

If people overpaid it is their fault. DYOR

Steve, London, UK

It's the greedy homeowners who pushed the prices up, together with the Banks.

Estate Agents are innocent!

toky, london,

dear oh dear the poor people who thought they could make a quick buck from the less wealthy (young people looking for a break) may lose out !!!! serves the money grabbing arrogant litte people right !!!

David , Balmedie , Scotland

Those who bought to let were quite willing to scam the tenants

Terry Taylor, hennebont, france

This is just a daft article. Property prices have crashed and investors in property have lost money - me included. I'm afraid that's how it goes.

Nick Ansell, Wilmslow, UK

Well I don't mean to be horrid but I have little sympathy for the many greedy people of this country who rushed out to buy flats and houses merely to let. Many people now own 3 flats and a large number may be in for a shock. labour convinced this country they were all property developers.

Robert, Aberdeen, UK

Quote of the week from the local tramp who's home was repossessed in 1980 - “Once I was stinking Rich. Now I am only stinking”!

John Osborne, Wareham, England

Kim,

I saw it coming because I experienced the 90s' crash. Everything's cyclical and I've used my spare cash over the years good times or bad to reduce my debts the biggest being my mortgage. People have the right to invest. What I resent is my hard earned tax pennies being given to the feckless.

peter taylor, bristol,

I bought a new house this year, fortunately I didn't take what was wide spread advice from all my middle class friends.. if your mortgage isn't killing you, it's not big enough. I know property is traditionally robust but, buy2let return is never big enough to justify the risk for most.

Ross A Wilson, Salisbury, UK

Who in this room saw the crash coming? None of you did...

Kim, London, UK

This type of ignorance really gets my goat. The fact is MANY people saw this coming, and tried to point out how every bubble in history has popped sooner or later. But the stupid will part with their money like it or not

Roy, London,

Speculating in property is riskier than in equities. Even though equities are more volatile, they are at least highly liquid, unlike property.

How did we up in a situation where people thought speculating was risk free? Perhaps we should ask Gordon 'won't let house prices get out of control' Brown?

Roy, London,

When did all these so called professional people,doctors,teachers etc become property specialists? If a deal sounds too good to be true,thats because it isn't true.
Greed,If people stuck to what they knew,they wouldn't be in this predicament.Been in property for 25 yrs,and saw this coming 5 yearsago

Sean, Manchester,

The valuers in this were part of one of the largest organisations in the country. They were paid for by the investors. Many of the valuers have been arrested at this stage.

AJ, London,

Phil, the inherent inequity of people being able to borrow under the BTL scheme is what people hate. My parents, and many other people with cash in the bank could have hopped on the BTL band wagon (with a greater ability to put equity in), but didn't. They could see the crash not the cash.

duncan, Wokingham,

These buyers are as bad as the sellers, people trying to make substantial amounts of money out of others, which is greed.....

michelle, donegal, ireland

Kim, property as investment is considered to have similar characteristics to investing in equities. Anyone who thinks it is a safe investment is a fool.

Jon, St Albans,

These buyers of Buy To Let were not forced to buy any property at all.
Anyone who invests should do a bit of research first on the market. It was obvious to anyone clued up that the property market was driven by available credit and could not go on.

Johny, Kings Langley, England

The real tragedies are yet to come I fear. So called Social Housing Part-Buy Part-Rent sponsored by Housing Associations and Central/Local Authorities have and will continue to generate numerous victims.

BC, Canterbury, England

Seymour, why didn't your clients get an independent valuation? Presumably you advised them to do so; due diligance and all that.

Stu Peters, Nova Scotia,

It never ceases to amaze me the outpouring of vitriol against BTL investors. Purely and simply they were investors. Just like any other form of investing, it can down as well as up. I do not think, however they invested with the intention of keeping property out of the reach of first time buyers.

Phil Clark, Southend-on-Sea, England

Exactly Kim. But then people in this country hate anyone making any money.

Nick, London, UK

Kim, I saw it coming as did plenty of people. After all, it was only the price crash of the early 90s that allowed me on to the property ladder.
These 'victims' income was by virtue of pricing others out of the market and into their clutches. Immoral and should have been taxed out of existance.

Darren, Flintshire,

I am a conveyancing solicitor. I acted for clients introduced by an agent who told buyers they were getting property at a discount from market value, when they were not. That is fraud. Selling investment property us unregulated, unlike equities. That needs to be corrected by legislation.

Seymour Major, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Kim, last time it was a seven year property cycle and this one went on and on for fourteen. Surely everyone except you knew it was coming the only question was when?

David Pengilly, Long Ditton,

The smug moralising in this slew of comments turns my stomach. These are simply people who wanted to made decent, safe investments for their futures. Who in this room saw the crash coming? None of you did, these poor victims have been defrauded of money they invested with care and diligence.

Kim, London, UK

Greed, oh how the mighty tumble. Serve them right.

Michael Riley, London, London

Seriously, when you give your money to someone else, do you research. I dont think that should have to include BANKS, but everything else, YES.

Talese Amer, Londontown,

buy to let owners were not first time buyers but greedy individuals who were bent on keeping the property purchase out of the reach of first time buyers.absolutely 0 sympathy with this lot.

muhammed shafiq, manchester, u.k

I have very little sympathy I'm afraid. There is an old saying that should have served well but clearly hasn't : "If it's too good to be true........". We could all have borowed way above our means in the hope of getting rich, but we are not all stupid.

Nick Ward, Deal, Kent

Any blame should be laid at the door of the man who said 'there would be no more boom and bust' it was statements like this that made people belive house prices would keep rising forever.

Chris, Bangor, UK

So people bought a flat without getting an independent sworn valuation? Well, well ...

Ken Duncan, Perth, Australia

Idiotic television programmes during the 'boom' helped to stoke the belief that everyone could be a Landlord and get rich quick. Now the real price for their follies is being paid. There is always somebody one step ahead of you.

Andy, Liverpool, UK

Buyer beware!

J Jenkins, York,

Property prices are determined by how much people are prepared to pay, so where's the fraud? If the buyers were over paying, does it mean that they in turn were going to defraud their renters by overcharging for rent? The buyers must have thought it was the correct price at the time of purchase.

Keith, Bangkok, Thailand

Well this does not surprise me. The BTL boom was one big deception in which groups of people with vested interests and estate agents played a part. Even now I see many people changing estate agents when reducing a property value just to make it harder to detect. The big lie has been uncovered.

mike, lichfield, UK

A fool and his money.....

Aram, London, uk