When Brixton’s chief executive Tim Wheeler last week used a quote from the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” in the half-year results to highlight the “beleaguered” spirit of the sector, he inadvertently sparked off a new interest among property professionals in naming the song they think best fits the prevailing mood.

A fine gauge of sentiment, it is too. A quick poll this week (of public and private property companies, real estate analysts, investors, fund managers and agents) revealed few doubts that the market is in turmoil – simply by people’s choice of tune for summer 2008.