House prices fall again as city centre flats take biggest hit

UK house prices registered a 1.3% fall in September, according to Britain’s biggest lender; the Halifax.

The lender claimed that the drop, attributed primarily to the low availability of credit, meant the annual fall now stood at 12.4%, with the cost of the average home in the UK now at £172,108.

September was the eighth consecutive month in which house prices registered a fall on the previous month and Halifax’s chief economist Martin Ellis expected conditions to remain “challenging”.

"The ongoing pressures on householders' income, combined with the reduction in the availability of mortgage finance mean that market conditions will remain challenging,"

But he welcomed the move by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 4.5% on Wednesday.

"Lower interest rates will help mortgage borrowers faced with increasing pressures on their finances and provide a valuable support to the housing market," Mr Ellis said.
The announcement came alongside the results of another survey which revealed that some properties – predominantly city centre flats and apartments – fell by more than 175 in the last year.

Property developments in Birmingham City Centre saw the biggest drops according to the survey by Mouseprice.com, with the average price at Birmingham’s Canal development dropping 17.2% to £153,500.

Developments in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool and London also suffered significant drops in value.