House price slide levels to 0.4% in November

The slide in UK house prices levelled off slightly in November, with the average price of a home declining just 0.4%, according to Nationwide.

The fall compares with a 1.3% drop in October and means that house prices are down 13.9% on November 2007, compared with an annual fall of 14.6%, in October.

The price of the average home now stands at £158,442, representing a £25,000 loss year-on-year.

However, the country’s largest building society is not expecting a speedy recovery of the market and warns that the problems of the economy will continue to put pressure on prices.

Nationwide’s chief economist, Fionnuala Earley, adds that while prices continue falling at their current rate, there is little incentive for new borrowers to hurry into the market.

Earlier this week, the British Bankers’ Association published figures for mortgage lending in October, showing that the number of mortgages approved for house purchases declined in volume to 21,584, down from 23,383 in September or 52% year-on-year.

The figures illustrate that the solution to the UK’s housing market woes remain with leading mortgage lenders, who have recently been threatened with government action if they fail to begin restoring lending to pre-credit crisis levels.

Meanwhile, Sir James Crosby, author of the Government commissioned Crosby Report on the UK mortgage market, has warned that net new mortgage lending may fall below zero next year.

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