Asking prices for homes in England and Wales dropped for the fourth month in the past five, a survey showed today as economic uncertainty and low mortgage approvals took their toll.
Property website Rightmove said prices fell 3.2 per cent this month, their sharpest drop since December 2007 and more than reversing October's 3.1 per cent rise.
The annual rate of growth fell to 1.3 per cent, its lowest this year, from 2.9 per cent in October.
Mortgage lender Nationwide and property data firm Hometrack also reported falling house prices in October. With government spending cuts and tax rises due to take effect at the start of the year, there is little optimism that prices will pick up any time soon.
Property prices normally slip in the winter months and the Rightmove survey is not seasonally adjusted.
"Agents report that the Christmas slowdown has come early this year, as both would-be buyers and sellers are adopting a 'wait and see' policy until the direction of next year's housing market becomes more apparent," said Miles Shipside, a Rightmove director.
Economic uncertainty may have scared away some potential sellers, with 9.1 per cent fewer new properties on the market compared to October, the survey said.
But stringent lending conditions have meant the number of new sellers continues to outstrip mortgage approvals in a ratio of 2 to 1.
The average time a house stays on the market hit a record high in November, going above 100 days for the first time since Rightmove began indexing house prices in 2001. Average unsold stock per agent also remains unseasonally high, the survey said.
Rightmove, which claims to capture 90 per cent of all homes sold via estate agents in England and Wales, based its data on a survey of 96,110 asking prices on its website between October 10th and November 6th.
Reuters