If you live in Britain, now is a good time to be buying abroad: the pound is high.

Rising interest rates, mortgage hikes, spiralling London prices and, elsewhere, a flattening market; flooding, the HIPs fiasco - and now, Gordon Brown's much-hyped housing bills. Depressing? It doesn't have to be. Ross Clark and Anna Tyzack offer an alternative guide to finding a home

 
1 Buying a home with a complete stranger might appear a guaranteed way of ending up chopped to pieces under the floorboards, but it is a route that buyers are taking. The website www.sharedspaces.co.uk runs a dating agency for would-be homeowners wanting a like-minded individual with whom to share a telephone conversation, and if all goes well, a mortgage. Romance is not encouraged, and anyone thinking of taking this route is encouraged to take out a police check at £10 a time.

2 In 2005, Gordon Brown hatched plans to help 100,000 first-time buyers on to the housing ladder through shared-equity schemes. In spite of high property prices, the scheme has been under-subscribed. You should contact, in the first instance, your local authority. There is one snag: although the Government and mortgage lender will own part of the property, it is you who will be responsible for maintaining the lot.

3 If you can add an extra room or two to your property, it might enable you to stay in a cramped property for years more. Do avoid falling into some of the traps that can detract from the value of your home. Just about the worst sin is creating a room without a window.

4 The idea of taking in lodgers will forever be tarnished by the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers, in which a group of criminal lodgers plot to bump off their landlady. If you can avoid that fate, it can be profitable. In many towns, a spare room will rent for about £60 a week, and under the terms of the Government's "rent-a-room" scheme you can earn £4,250 a year in this way tax-free.

5 An offset mortgage combines current account, savings account and a mortgage - with the result that every penny you manage to save effectively comes off your mortgage balance. Well managed, an offset mortgage can help you pay off your loans years early. But be warned: it would be easy to avoid paying off your debt indefinitely.

6 With base rates in the euro zone at 4 per cent - 1.75 per cent below what they are in Britain - it is tempting to save yourself money by taking out a mortgage denominated in euros. A few specialist providers will do this - see www.charcol.co.uk - but it is a risky business: should the pound fall against the euro, your outstanding mortgage debt will rise.

7 You won't make yourself popular by selling off the vegetable plot for a bungalow but, if you wouldn't miss a slice of your garden, and the detachable portion has good access, the planning authority can hardly turn you down: back gardens count as brownfield land and are game for developers.

8 Film-makers sometimes need boring semis in Staines, too. A one-day photoshoot could net you £500 to £1,000; an episode of Poirot up to £4,000 a day. One of the leading agencies is www.lavishlocations.com.

9 If you have moved into your property within the past six months, you have the right to challenge your council tax banding - potentially saving up to a couple of hundred pounds a year. But be warned: one homeowner who noticed his neighbours were in a lower band complained to the council. He didn't get his council tax cut - but his neighbours were put up a band.

10 If you live in an urban area with a shortage of parking spaces, an unused garage might provide an income for a commuter's car. Also much in demand are parking spaces close to airports.

11 A flat with fewer than 20 years to run on the lease will cost you less than half that of a flat with 99 years left on the lease - and reform of the leasehold laws means that you can extend your lease at any time.

12 Look at property built in the 1960s and 1970s. It is housing built in those decades that forms the nadir of the market: it lacks the efficiency of modern housing and the charm of period housing. But not only is it cheap, housing of the period often came with good-size gardens - a rapidly diminishing commodity.

13 Unless you live in an unusually depressed area, you can almost certainly release capital without downsizing - by moving to a cheaper area. Cheap areas are not all economically dead. House prices in the Forest of Dean, for example, are half what they are in the Cotswolds, yet average weekly earnings are just £2 a week lower.

14 Buy-to-let investors have played a huge part in the property boom of the past decade. Now that yields have fallen, many wonder whether it now makes sense. Put your money into shares instead and you can still gain exposure to property markets - but without putting all your eggs in one basket.

15 Frustrated first-time buyers who have bought property in Spain or Bulgaria in the hope that it will help them get a foothold on the ladder face an uphill task. But if you live in Britain, now is a good time to be buying abroad: the pound is high.

16 If your creditors are closing in and you need to sell quickly, it could pay you to sell at an auction. You might not get such a good price, but the big advantage is that once the hammer has fallen, contracts have been exchanged: your buyer can't mess around and demand thousands off the price as a result of a survey.

17 You have reduced the price, but you still haven't had a viewing for a month. There is still somebody interested in buying your home, however: the several companies set up to deal in difficult-to-sell properties. They don't pretend to offer market value - most will claim to offer about 85 per cent of what you might get on the open market. But, armed with cash, they can move quickly. Just watch valuation fees: some companies charge several hundred pounds for a valuation. Whether or not you decide to sell, they will make their money.

18 Council houses, the sale of which formed one of Maggie Thatcher's most popular policies, are back in fashion. An estate has recently been built in Edinburgh and last week Gordon Brown announced 45,000 new "social homes" - a euphemism for council houses.

19 Equity release is an ex-pression which creates hope and causes fear in equal measure. There are several types, all which are explained on Saga's website - www.saga.co.uk. Just bear in mind: if you have owned your property outright, the concept of handing ownership to someone else can be painful.

20 Sell your home - then rent it back. If you are struggling with the mortgage, it is possible to sell your home without actually moving out. Several companies will now buy your property, at below the market rate, and then rent it back to you. Visit www.rentbackmyproperty.co.uk.