Land Registry reveals further dip in house prices in May

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by Kay Murchie

According to figures from the Land Registry, house prices dipped by 0.2% in May in England and Wales and follows the slight fall of 0.3% in April.

The Land Registry puts the average home at £152,497 and puts the annual rate of decline at 15.9%.

According to the data, all regions of England saw annual prices fall again May, with the sharpest fall noted in the North East with prices down 17.2%.

However, Wales reported a rise of 1.2% in prices in May taking the average price of a home to £119,990.

The Land Registry also said property transactions had more than halved between December 2008 and March 2009 with transactions at 31,091, against the 64,674 reported a year earlier.

It must be noted that the Land Registry compiles its data from completed transactions and therefore lags behind other monitors of the housing market but is seen as the most authoritative.

In comparison, the latest survey from the Halifax revealed a 2.6% rise in house prices in May, while the Nationwide also reported a rise of 1.2%.

Meanwhile the Land Registry figures come just a week after the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed that mortgage lending fell by 58% in the year to May 2009, dashing hopes of a recovery in the housing market.