The advertising overlords at one of Germany's largest mortgage-providers are pleased to bring on to the market this well-proportioned, family-size home with integrated appliances and hand - crafted features. Benefiting from 120 tonnes of Canadian ice, this delightful Frankfurt-based property comprises a kitchen, living room (with fire) and bathroom with pre-frozen bath-tub and full toilet facility.

Viewing is highly recommended, in order that bewildered Germans fully appreciate the impact of this £250,000-plus marketing gimmick.

Prospective visitors should also be award that this property, despite being constructed in Britain at 7C, is making executives at ING-Diba bank very hot and excited. It is the first such structure to be built outside Arctic temperatures and interest is expected to be high; more than 1,500 visitors marvelled at the sub-zero lavatory when the property came on-stream yesterday. It is structurally sound and has also been fully checked for damp (it is) by its creators, Ice Box - the company in the vanguard of Britain's £20 million ice-sculpture industry.

Further visitors are sought for five additional houses - all roughly equivalent to the price of a four-bedroom semi - which will open just as soon as the previous version melts into nothingness (within a week).

Guests who are worried about any unfortunate metaphors for Germany's financial fortunes are warmly invited to visit for free, and to be reassured, in the words of the bank itself, that this is "not a symbol for anything?. Except the gross excesses of banking advertisers, perhaps.

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