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 18 May 2008 00:13 BST

House prices slip 0.6 per cent in April

Monday, 28 Apr 2008 11:05
House prices down 0.6 per cent in April

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A 0.6 per cent dip in house prices in England and Wales was felt during April, Hometrack said on Monday.

This is the seventh consecutive monthly fall, and sees the annual rate of growth has slip to -0.9 per cent - the lowest level since January 2006

Over the month some 51.4 per cent of postcode districts saw prices fall, compared to 28.8 per cent in March and 33.2 in February.

At present 93 per cent of properties achieve their asking price, a figure lower than those recorded in both March and February.

Homes now spend an average of 9.1 weeks on the market before completing a sale.

"While the availability of finance is impacting on demand in certain segments, the reality is that weak confidence is effectively resulting in a 'buyers strike' with households sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see how events unfold," commented Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research, on the figures.

"As we predicted last year, transaction volumes will be the big casualty and there now seems the prospect of a record low in residential sales volumes in 2008."

The Hometrack research finds there was a 3.6 per cent increase in the number of properties listed for sale during April, illustrating a slowdown from the 4.6 and 8.2 per cent recorded in March and February respectively.

"The factors impacting on the market today are very different from the 1990s when households were effectively forced to withdraw from the market for economic and financial reasons," explained Mr Donnell.

"The current weakness in demand today is largely confidence driven - the fact that the majority of house moves are 'aspirational' rather than 'need' based is only exacerbating the problem."End of story

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