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LONDON - When Michele Greenman and her longtime boyfriend broke up, their heartache was compounded by the misery of Britain's sinking housing market.

Greenman, a legal secretary, and her banker boyfriend bought a house for the equivalent of about $730,000 early last year. But when they went to sell it a few months later, its value had fallen by $50,000.

They wanted to split up, but not to sell the house and absorb the financial loss. So for three months after their breakup, they lived together in an awkward and painful daily routine -- with him sleeping on the couch.