House prices tumble 1% in initial dump for 10 months

Martin Waller & , : {}

House prices in the UK went in to retreat in February, bringing to an finish 9 uninterrupted months of cost rises, Nationwide pronounced in the construction society"s monthly consult of the market.

Prices fell by 1 per cent from their levels of last month. However, Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide"s arch economist, warned that the tumble could be the outcome of special factors, such as the sleet and the expiry of the legal holiday on stamp duty.

He said: "It is formidable to sign how most of the dump in housing wake up is attributable to one-off factors and, therefore, either February"s tumble in prices is only a proxy blip or the begin of a new trend."

The Feb decrease is the sharpest given the same month in 2009, that saw a 1.5 per cent tumble month-on-month.

Related LinksMortgage approvals tumble neatly as stamp avocation service endsBarratt and Galliford Try urge counsel on residence salesSecond homes in Britain behind in practice

But the smoother three-month measure, seeking at prices in Dec to February, showed a 1.6 per cent rise, though this was down on the 2 per cent reported in January.

The annual rate of cost acceleration managed to enlarge from 8.6 per cent to 9.2 per cent year-on-year, as this months tumble was not as big than the 1.5 per cent month on month decrease available in Feb 2009.

The normal cost of a UK skill in Feb was 161,320. Mr Gahbauer pronounced there was justification from a range of indicators that the housing marketplace might have lost movement in early 2010.

New customer inquiries fell neatly in the new year and there was an compared tumble in new mortgages taken out in January. "This dump in direct seems to have fed in to concluded prices during February."

Several housebuilders, stating total in new days, have forked to signs of a little alleviation in the marketplace but have warned that this could be singular by limited entrance to mortgages.

This week, in justification to the Treasury Select Committee, Kate Barker, a part of of the Bank of England"s Monetary Policy Committee, warned that the UK housing zone could be "quite diseased by this year".

hair wig