U.K. house prices fell for a sixth month in March as banks curtailed lending and consumers lost confidence in the property market, Hometrack Ltd. said.
The average cost of a home in England and Wales declined 0.2 percent to 174,100 pounds ($347,000), the London-based research company said today. The annual rate of growth slipped to 0.4 percent, the least in two years.
Banks have raised the cost of borrowing for homebuyers with the smallest deposits to a seven-year high, declining to pass on two interest-rate cuts by the Bank of England since December. Consumer confidence dropped to a 13-year low in March and house prices rose at the slowest annual pace since 1996, separate reports showed last week.
``Continued uncertainty in the financial markets, affordability pressures and weak buyer confidence are all likely to suppress levels of market activity in the months ahead, with pricing levels remaining under pressure'' said Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack.
The report is based on a survey of 3,500 real estate agents and surveyors, calculating average values using judgments of achievable prices rather than sale prices alone.
Prices fell in nine of the 10 regions in England that Hometrack follows, and they stayed unchanged in Wales. London, the North of England and the West Midlands led declines, with a 0.3 percent drop. |
