Hedge funds are continuing to set up so-called short positions against quoted companies from the residential industry as worries grow of a slowdown in the housing market and house-building sectors.
In recent weeks fund managers have been shorting Foxtons, because of its particular vulnerability to a fall in London prices. With a market cap of £590m Foxtons' share price has fallen around 14 per cent since the start of September.
Barratt Homes, Rightmove, Zoopla and high-end agency Savills are amongst other residential industry names targeted by the funds.
Shorting is an strategy associated closely with hedge funds and, to the outside, appears another example of a casino-style approach to investment.
It involves an investor - or hedge fund - borrowing' shares from a broker and selling them on the open market. The investor must eventually buy back the shares from the open market and return them to the broker, but the trick is in time the buy-back so it costs less than the sale price, thus creating a profit.
Online financial services have this week quoted Tom Walker, co-head of global property securities at UK fund manager Schroders, as saying that the shorting' process of well-known residential companies follows recent figures suggesting that London house prices have peaked and a potential slowdown next year.
What [the hedge funds] are calculating is that the trend continues and it isn't just a one off or a seasonal slowdown he says.
Last week's Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors figures are quoted by several analysts as an indicator of the market's volatility.
RICS says momentum in the market has faded with house price growth slowing to the same level as 16 months ago and demand from new buyers faling for the third month in a row in September. In London "caution took a particular toll", with demand down for the fifth consecutive month.
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