Property: Swap shop - one agent's remedy for the log-jam

"If I'd earned a pound for every time someone told me they would sell if only they could find somewhere to buy, I wouldn't need to sell houses at all", one estate agent complained the other day. He is not alone.

In Beaconsfield, Timothy Gerrard, of estate agents Raffety Buckland, is so fed up with the log-jam he has taken matters into his own hands. He is in the process of publishing a mini-magazine with properties people are thinking of selling. "I can already see two owners doing a perfect swap. They don't know it yet but they are just around the corner from each other. Both can afford the other house and they have the same taste."

The enterprising Mr Gerrard decided to get the ball rolling when he found 115 people on the computer in the area who wanted to buy but were anxious about putting their own houses up for sale even though valuations had been done. "Many want to stay in the same road, but are after a house with perhaps a larger garden or one more bedroom, while others want to trade down. Local people often can't compete with the unencumbered buyers from London so this might give them a head-start."

Good news for commuters from Banbury. Chiltern Railways is to cut the journey time between that station and Marylebone by 25 mins. The new, fast, peak-time only service, which will start in May, means that Birmingham to London will take just under two hours instead of 2hr 25 mins, while the journey from Banbury is reduced to an hour from the present 1 hr 25 mins.

According to George Philip in the Banbury office of Lane Fox, the estate agents, this should make a significant difference to the value of property in north Oxfordshire. "Something in the region of 7 to 10 per cent", he says. "This area has been held back by its relatively slow service. It will now be on a par with places like Winchester and Newbury". Chiltern Railways also has plans for a new out-of-town station near Warwick.

Nicholas Brown of Knight Frank in Oxford can also envisage it becoming more viable as a commuter area, as much to those working in Birmingham as in London. "At present, the most popular areas for London commuters are south-west of Oxford, which has good rail links, and east of Oxford, which is the right side for the motorway. They also want to be able to get into the city easily for the schools, so there is enormous demand in the villages within 10 or 15 miles."

Wanted: one careful tenant who loves dogs. The owners of a north London house who are moving overseas next month are so upset at the thought of their pet being separated from its home as well as the family, they are hoping to leave it in situ. The future of Freeway - a Shih Tzu - is hanging in the balance. "It would be lovely if Freeway could stay there," says Susan Gilbert of Knight Frank, who is letting the house between Barnet and Hadley Wood.

"But of course, the owner is prepared to make other arrangements. This is an unusual request, although we did have somebody who left a cat with a year's supply of food." The whole business of pets can be fraught, Ms Gilbert says. A great many landlords refuse to have them in their properties. "This can cause an awful lot of upset. Sometimes a family reluctantly uproots and the one way of making the children feel more at home is by having a pet. It is a terrible dilemma if they find the right house and then discover they can't bring their dog to live there."

Hampstead Lettings, Knight Frank: 0171 431 8686.