With so much doom and gloom around, it is hardly surprising that many of the big players in the housebuilding and estate agency businesses decided to cheer themselves up by taking an early break this year. They didn't head for beautiful Bundoran or high rise Benidorm. No, they jetted off to join the Lions tour of Australia where the crack is, by all accounts, mighty. The more genteel ones who prefer strawberries and cream settled for Wimbledon.