October fall in house prices

The latest research from Hometrack, the property intelligence company, shows a 0.1% decrease in house prices in October, reducing the annual rate of house price growth to 4.4%.

The fall in prices is the first for 2 years and occurred across all regions of the UK, excepting the West Midlands, where values were static.

According to Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, “the fall in prices over October isn’t unexpected. Indeed, after several months of weaker buyer confidence, falling levels of demand and declining sales volumes, prices were bound to be affected”.

According to the survey, areas registering above average house price falls during October are largely in the South East and higher value areas of London.

The figures are as follows: Central London and City (-0.5%), South West (-0.4%), Hampshire (-0.4%), Cambridgeshire (-0.3%) and Oxfordshire (-0.3%).

All these areas have recorded strong price increases over the last 2 years and are consequently the most sensitive to the changes brought about by the current credit squeeze.

The number of buyers registering with estate agents fell 6.4% over October, with a 17% decrease in new buyer registrations.

As a result, the numbers of sales agreed fell 4.8% during the month and the average length of time for a property to be on the market rose from 5.8 weeks in May 2007, to 7.4 weeks in October.

In terms of asking prices, estate agents report that buyers are achieving 94.3%, down from 94.8% in September.

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