A shortage of one and two bedroom apartments in Dundee has left one local property expert concerned. John Bennett, a partner in the Dundee-based surveyors J & E Shepherd feels that that Dundee now needs to urgently focus attention on building considerably more "affordable" housing for the buyers in the city and less on homes at the luxury end of the market.

John Bennett, a partner in the Dundee-based surveyors J & E Shepherd said: "We need to get back to concentrating much more on the lower priced end of the market as quickly as possible. There is something of an over-provision of new housing at the top end of the market and a severe shortage of one or two-bedroom traditional flats."

The Conservatives are expected to unveil plans to devote £1bn to a tax cut on stamp duty.

If re-elected at the forthcoming general election, the Tory party could raise the threshold from £60,000 to £250,000. The Liberal Democrats have proposed a £150,000 limit, while Labour plans to keep stamp-duty at £120,000.

An ICM poll in today's Guardian newspaper puts Labour on 39%, the Conservatives on 33% and the Lib Dems on 22%.

Landlords Legislation.

With recent and forthcoming changes to legislation governing the letting of residential property, letting specialist 'Leaders' has released a comprehensive document for landlords, containing information about all the current, new and forthcoming legislation affecting residential letting.

The document, entitled The Knowledge, which clearly explains what is required of landlords in order to comply with the legislation, and is available to download from Leaders' website at www.leaders.co.uk

Leaders' Joint managing director, Paul Weller said: "Now that the Housing Act 2004 gives ministers the power to introduce further regulation without having to revert to the House of Commons for approval, it is more important than ever for landlords and letting agents to ensure they stay up to date with legislation."

Property Consultant, Robert Ditty, of Osborne King, predicts that the abolishment of stamp duty relief for disadvantaged areas in this year's Budget could have a detrimental impact on investment deals (during the short to medium term) taking place in Belfast's city centre.

Robert Ditty, said: "The decision to abolish the stamp duty relief came completely out of the blue and will undoubtedly have significant implications for a number of ongoing deals that we're aware of at present. Essentially, vendors were getting 4% more for their properties, while purchasers were getting cash flow benefits, which resulted in a ' winwin' scenario for all concerned."

Mr Ditty adds: "We know for a fact that a major deal in London worth £135 million has collapsed, which is hardly surprising when you consider that removing stamp duty relief added £4.5 million to the cost of the deal."

"While the reinstatement of normal stamp duty may have a detrimental impact on immediate city centre development and investment, we remain confident, nonetheless, that the market is sufficiently robust to withstand any long term, negative effects of what has been a significant incentive for both developers and investors," Ditty concludes.

Simon Thurley, the Government's chief conservation adviser and chief executive of English Heritage, has criticised John Prescott's plans to demolish up to 400,000 terrace homes to boost housing markets in the Midlands and the North.

Speaking to Planning Magazine, Mr Thurley said: "The problems facing areas with low demand for housing were more to do with a minority anti-social element than terrace architecture. We should move away from the idea that the problem is the housing rather than the people. To say that terrace housing causes problems is, to put a technical term on it, b******s,"

He added: "What are we doing crunching up perfectly serviceable houses that have stood for 150 years and are capable of being there for another 150 years? It is true that some 19th century houses are less well built than others, but look at the quality of the material used. They are infinitely superior to anything in replacement homes."