House prices drop below £300,000 mark

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Latest official figures show there is no sign yet of the property market bottoming out.

Prices went down for the 11th consecutive month last month - the average value at which property in the capital changed hands fell by £5,861, or 1.9 per cent, from £304,424 to £298,563, according to the Land Registry. The annual rate of fall was 15.6 per cent.

The figures are regarded as the most accurate barometer of the property market because they include all completion prices for sold homes. The last time the average was below £300,000 in the capital was in August 2006. Since the peak in January last year it has dropped by almost £60,000.

Camden suffered the biggest monthly fall, of 4.3 per cent, dragging the average price of a home in the borough to £454,503. The biggest annual fall was in Haringey at 17.1 per cent.

Estate agents have reported a big pick-up in enquiries since the start of the new year but fears of further falls and a shortage of mortgage finance means this has still to feed through into markedly higher transactions.

The Land Registry figures show that just fewer than 4,000 homes changed hands in December, down 59 per cent in a year. The only price band which saw an increase was the £50,000 to £100,000 range which had 50 homes last December - compared with the 38 in December 2007.

Nationally prices fell two per cent last month to £153,862, matching levels last seen in September 2004.