Share prices for some of the UK’s biggest housing developers have slumped amid fears the sector’s future is looking uncertain.

The BBC reports Barratt Developments dropped 35 per cent, while Taylor Wimpey is down by a quarter and Redrow was down 22 per cent after bankers gave bleak outlooks. Some developers have been impacted by the slowdown in the housing market as sales fall and some buyers pull out at the last minute.

Quoted by the BBC, a Merrill Lynch research note said:

“Uncertainty has been and remains both a pervasive as well as a malign force overshadowing sentiment toward the UK house builders.

“In particular, trends in unemployment remain potentially of the greatest concern. We continue to take the view that this is the single most important macro variable to watch.”

According to the BBC UK is up by 38,000 to 1.64 million from February to April. Merill Lynch is a financial management and advice company which has offices in 40 countries and client assets totalling billions of pounds.

As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes.

Surging demand is pushing the serviced apartments sector into India’s property investment limelight. Indian Realty News reports a lack of hotel rooms means more and more quality serviced units are needed and developers are quickly answering the call.

Cushman and Wakefield Hospitality director Akshay Kulkarni said:

“Serviced apartments have found favour so far only as an offshoot of corporate needs and or due to shortage of hotel rooms in most cities.

“In today’s supply shortage scenario, it seems like whatever one can build will get filled up, even if only through word of mouth.”

Experts also see international players digging into the Indian market, the site reports. One case study of this is Brigade Hospitality’s tie-up with the European group Accor for the upcoming Mercure Homestead residences in Bangalore’s Koramangala area.However some people are warning against investor over-reliance on the sector.

Mohan Kumar of Taj West End said:

“One has to look at the growth of the popularity of serviced apartments in context of the huge investments being made in hotels now.”

Thousands of new hotel rooms are expected on the Indian accommodation market by around 2012, with up to 5,000 units expected in Bangalore. Taj Hotels runs a chain of residences featuring more than 70 hotels across the world including the UK, US and Middle East.

Buy-to-let is not the ‘UK sub-prime crisis’ but remains a sound method of ensuring a successful property investment, according to a landlord group. The National Landlords Association (NLA) says rents are still increasing as first-time buyers stick it out in let properties while they remain unable to get on the housing ladder.

Officials at the association claim the private rented sector is

“entirely counter-cyclical”

with rents rising and the market providing opportunities to expand portfolios.

NLA chairman David Salusbury said:

“The NLA does not subscribe to the view that the end is in sight for the buy-to-let market.

“On the contrary, we believe now is a good time for the professional portfolio landlord, many of whom will be benefiting from increased demand and rising rents”.

According to NLA figures average UK rents are up 13.8 per cent on April 2007. The group encouraged prospective new landlords to shop around for a good mortgage deal given the current state of the narrowing market. The NLA lobbies the authorities on behalf of the private rented sector and has around 13,000 fee-paying members.

Earlier this month the group won praise from industry officials for publishing a series of guidelines on the sale and rent back sector.