I AM amazed and quite frankly disgusted that this is what our country - led by supposedly intelligent people - has come to.

Summers camped in queues for the chance to buy a house and internet searches for strangers to split the mortgage with.

What? Are these not both things, that under normal circumstances, we would all strongly advise against doing on a matter of safety.

But it seems in the current climate of rising interest rates and house prices, with first time buyers hopes of becoming homeowners slowly dwindling, I suppose it's no wonder all previous common sense has been hurled out the window.

Whether you are buying, selling or trying to keep up with the mortgage payments no-one seems certain where the market is headed.

And from what I can gather it is only getting worse.

In The Truth About Property, Andrew Verity travelled the country discovering just how far homebuyers are stretching themselves to make the big, sensible - sensible being the operative word - step on to the property ladder.

It's something our elders have long since been programmed to advise us to do for a better future, but if this programme is a true reflection of it all, it seems we are all going to get ourselves in more bother trying to do the sensible thing.