Comment: More pain, no gain

Economists recall with mocking incredulity a crazy few months in the summer of 1988 when friends and colleagues rushed to buy property together before the deadline on a change to mortgage interest relief.

Despite the overheated state of the property market the lure of two lots of 'Miras' was too much to miss out on and buyers rushed headlong into purchases they would come to regret.

Two years later not only were the joint purchasers financially handcuffed together but the property they had rushed to buy was worth half of what they paid for it. In the not-too distant future their interest mortgage relief would be phased out and interest rates would soar. Cruelly all they had to look forward to was the pay out from the endowment mortgage that had made it all possible.