Morning:
8°c
£35,300 fall in average house price over a year
Mira Bar-Hillel2 Mar 2009
HOUSE prices in London have fallen by £35,300 on average in the past 12months, new figures show today.
Property values slumped by at least £2,500 last month alone, according to price monitor Hometrack.
The biggest monthly fall was in Hammersmith & Fulham, where prices dropped by £7,200, followed by Camden where they fell by £5,800.
But in the year to February, the biggest drop was in Merton, down by 15.8per cent or £55,400.
Overall, prices in London fell an average of 11.3 per cent.
The continued slump comes despite a rise in buyer registrations and actual sales throughout last month.
Richard Donnell, Hometrack's research director, said: "Sales are still around 60 per cent lower than they were a year ago. This falls well short of what could be classified as 'green shoots' of recovery.
"Given the uncertainty over the economic outlook and the expectation of further falls in prices, the majority of households are unwilling to move just now."
At the same time asking prices are still too optimistic and actual prices are on average 12 per cent lower.
The time taken to find a buyer is now about 12 weeks compared with less than nine weeks a year ago.
Dr Howard Archer, of analysts IHS Global Insight, said: "The latest figures reinforce our belief that house prices are likely to fall by a further 15 per cent in 2009. There will be another five per cent drop in house prices in the first half of 2010, before they flatten out in the second half of the year."
Reader views (7)
I hope people remind the insurance companies of this when
they are quoted a higher renewal fee?
If the price of the house is less, the cost of rebuilding should be the same?
Some-how I don't see this happening.
- P. C., rainham. essex., 03/03/2009 07:02
Report abuse
If your looking to buy it is great - if your looking to sell -tough.. If you are just planning to stay in place as your home for the next 30 years then who cares - up or down it doesn't effect you.
- Rich, Dallas, USA, 03/03/2009 00:20
Report abuse
There is still long way to go before they come down to their true value.
- John Smith, London , England, 02/03/2009 17:11
Report abuse
didn't the Halifax tell us that house prices had stabilized last month? or was that only talking the market up, maybe estate agents and others with a vested intrest
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 02/03/2009 17:02
Report abuse
Property is still way overpriced, but it's fun watching estate agents collapse.
- Neil M., london uk,, 02/03/2009 16:08
Report abuse
Suprised its only gone down by so little, give it another year of bank bailouts etc by this Governmentand I expect it will have dropped far more
- Mike, London England, 02/03/2009 15:17
Report abuse
What goes up, must come down. Prices are going to roll back to what they were at the beginning of the boom. All that imaginary value / profit will all be erased and people will be left in houses they owe more than what they are worth.
- Brandon Thomas, SW7, London, 02/03/2009 14:23
Report abuse
