Lehman Brothers’ property analyst Mike Prew yesterday called time on the real estate boom as he switched his recommendation from ‘positive’ to ‘neutral’. Financial Times.

Prew, who is considered one of the top property analysts, issued a note asking whether the ‘gold rush’ had ended.

‘We believe the weight of evidence comes decisively down on the side of an economic slowdown and the prognosis for a slowing real estate market becomes stronger each day,’ he wrote.

‘There are unusually low premiums for bearing risk across most asset classes but especially real estate with an average initial yield of 4.5% against the 10-year UK government bond yield of 4.9%.’

Prew has been bullish on the sector for three and a half years, in spite of concerns elsewhere that the prices paid for shops and offices had reached unsustainable levels.