July house prices slip 0.7%

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by Gill Montia

The price of a typical UK home fell by 0.7% in July (June: -0.6%), according to Nationwide, and at £164,389 registered an annual decline of 2.6% (June: -1.5%).

The building society’s index shows house prices falling for the fourth time in five months, with July’s year-on-year loss at its greatest since August 2009.

The lender’s chief economist, Robert Gardner, suggests that the weaker price trend observed in recent months is unsurprising, given the disappointing performance of the UK economy, which is now 4.5% smaller than it was in the first quarter of 2008.

However, Mr Gardner also argues that against this difficult economic backdrop, house prices have shown resilience, having lost only 13% compared with their 2007 peak.