An estate agent in Honiton has told clients that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the reason behind the current sluggish housing market in the southwest and has nothing to do with their overly inflated prices.
After nearly two years of solid growth, property prices in the region have begun to stabilise and, in some cases, fallen.
But estate agent Jake Alexander says the recent slump in house sales is due to the ongoing war in Europe and not the preposterous valuations of bang average properties.
'Whenever there is a war thousands of miles away from our shores, the worst casualty - if you will pardon the pun - is always UK house prices.
It's not our fault that your property is not selling - you are the unfortunate victim of a situation beyond our control.'
'A derelict two-bedroom bungalow in need of total renovation with a guide price of £400,000 would typically fly off the shelf here in Devon. But as soon as Russian tanks started rolling into Kyiv, the UK property market down here slowed down. Any sane person would expect that kind of a reaction.
The sooner Russia occupies Ukraine and they stop shelling perfectly good property, the sooner house prices here in the UK will start to climb again.'