House prices fall for seventh consecutive month

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by Kay Murchie

Figures from the Land Registry show that the annual rate of house price growth in England and Wales has slowed for the seventh consecutive month.

The average house price is now £184,798 and the annual increase was 3.6% in March compared with 5.3% in February.

The survey by the Land Registry is the latest to record falls in March.

Unlike other surveys, the Land Registry figures are calculated from actual sale prices of properties in England and Wales, rather than lenders’ data.

Furthermore, Land Registry house price figures are slightly behind other surveys by the country’s biggest mortgage lenders.

Last month, both Halifax and Nationwide recorded falls in UK property prices. Both lenders are due to publish their house price indexes for April later this week.

In addition, housing intelligence business, Hometrack, said the housing market is cooling fast and said property prices were 0.9% down on the year in April, after recording a 0.4% annual gain in March, this figure represents the weakest since January 2006.

Richard Donnell of Hometrack said the mortgage meltdown is resulting in a ‘buyers strike’ and households are in wait and see mode to see how events materialise.

Meanwhile, estate agents believe property prices could fall by 25% if the credit squeeze continues.

Savills estate agents believe a fall of 10% could be seen this year while a further 15% fall could be noted next year.

Savills added that falls will be heavy in all but the most exclusive postcodes. However, action by lenders could limit the credit crunch impact to a fall of 6%.

Figures show that prices are now falling in 51% of postcode areas compared to just 29% one month ago.

Finally, it now takes 9 weeks to sell a property compared with just 6 weeks one year ago.