People working in the property industry are better positioned to survive the upcoming housing market downturn then they were during the last slowdown, it has been suggested.

Reuters reports that some analysts are predicting that while the cooling of the housing market could put the jobs of around five per cent of those working in the sector at risk, this is far fewer than the ten per cent who faced losing their job during the 1980s downturn.

However, one unnamed investment banker told the news agency: "We will end up with substantial redundancies next year.

"You''re going to get a structural change in the way real estate is looked at," he warned.

Citing other anonymous sources, Reuters also said that if the impact of turmoil on world financial markets continued into the last two quarters of 2008, more jobs could be jeopardised.

Writing in today''s Daily Telegraph, business journalist Jeff Randall said that while demand for property is still there as "an abstract concept", the credit crunch has already "kiboshed super-stretch mortgages", making it harder for buyers to get onto the property ladder.