From tomorrow, Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage lender will force borrowers with small deposits who do not use a broker to open current accounts before they can get a mortgage. The move is seen as an attempt to boost the bank’s cash deposits. A spokesperson for the bank said that ‘wholesale money continues to be significantly more expensive than a year ago. Unfortunately this increased costs needs to be passed on to new customers’.

BBC research has found that more people want house prices to fall than to rise – 28 per cent compared to less than a quarter of those polled, with most people wanting prices to stay the same. More than 60 per cent said that a price fall of more than 10 per cent would not make them any more likely to cut back on household spending. And house prices would have to fall by 56 per cent to put the average mortgage borrower into negative equity. The findings cast doubt on whether the political and economic damage done by falling prices is as serious as had been feared.

The number of unsold homes on the market has risen to more than one million, a 15 per cent increase on the same period last year. The figure, calculated by Rightmove.co.uk covers nine out of ten of all homes on the market and shows that not only are there more homes on the market, they are taking on average two weeks longer to sell.

Nearly one in ten British households will be millionaires within a decade, despite the global economic slowdown and falling property prices. Analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Barclays Wealth shows that the number of households worth £1 million or more will increase from 1.5 million to more than 2.4 million, with those worth £5 million set to more than double by 2017. However Britain is forecast to slip behind China in the global wealth index, but remain the fourth wealthiest nation after the US and Japan.

The Bank of England is expected to admit this week that it is set to breach its inflation target in the coming months and warns that Britain is destined for two years of soaring costs and weak growth. Mervyn King is expected to unveil a consumer price index forecast of more than 3 per cent in the coming months, and will cut its economic growth forecast for this year and next. The warning comes as house prices decrease and repossessions rise, and the bank is expected to cut borrowing costs at least once, perhaps twice, in the coming months.

And finally, the inaugural World Architecture Festival award, backed by 26 architectural magazines from five continents, has been announced. Any new, converted or restored building in one of 16 categories such as places of worship, theme parks, public toilets or prisons, could win the title of best new building in the world. The festival takes place in Barcelona in late October.