House prices fall but new buyers show cautious return

Property analyst, Hometrack, has published figures for February that show UK house prices falling for the fifth successive month.

The average price of a home decreased 0.2% over the month putting the annual rate of growth at 1.4%, the lowest level since April 2006.

However, there have also been signs of a slight improvement in buyer demand during February, with the first rise in new buyers registering with estate agents since June of last year.

Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack comments: “The modest increase in new buyer registrations is evidence of firming demand, largely on the back of recent interest rate cuts, with London and the South East registering the largest increases in demand. However, the growth in demand over February was much lower than over the same period in previous years.”

Demand grew markedly in London and the South East where new buyer registrations were up 13% and 10% respectively.

In both regions, the increase has been higher than the supply of homes coming on to the market, suggesting that prices could begin to stabilise in the months ahead.

Conversely, the supply of housing for sale increased more than demand in the Eastern, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside regions and Wales.

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