UK House Prices Fall 8.1% YoY In Nov

Source : The Business Times, December 2, 2008

(LONDON) House prices in England and Wales fell by 1.1 per cent in November to take them 8.1 per cent lower year-on-year, property consultancy Hometrack said in its monthly survey yesterday.

The pace of monthly decline eased slightly from October's 1.3 per cent drop, but the average house price is down to £161,400 (S$375,600), the same as in January 2006.

British house prices tripled in the 10 years running up to their peak in the middle of last year, but have since fallen by as much as 15 per cent in other surveys as the global financial crisis has caused the supply of mortgages to dry up.

'All the indicators from the latest survey point to a continued fall in property prices in the short term,' said Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack. 'A weak economic outlook and limited availability of mortgages are set to keep prices under downward pressure in 2009.'

He added that transaction volumes might be bottoming out, with a hard core of buyers and sellers who have to move left in the market. -- Reuters