01 January 09

House prices fall 8.7% over 2008

Welcome to the lastest property market update from sister company Hometrack.

House prices fall by 9.3% since start of the credit crunch...
House prices fell by 0.9% over December. This is now the fifteen month of consecutive falls which means that prices have fallen by 9.3% since the start of the credit crunch in August 2007. Over the 12 months of 2008 prices have fallen by 8.7%.

Volumes expected to fall back to 45% by end of year...
With homeowners simply choosing not to move, sales volumes have also fallen back ? over 2008 we expect to see a drop in volumes of some 45%. Overall we expect sales volumes to decline a further 12% over 2009.

Across the country southern England has seen greatest price falls...
Over December prices were down across 63% of the country, a figure that has fluctuated between 50% and 75% over the final half of the year. On a regional basis the greatest price falls have been seen in southern England where supply is most constrained and where prices are sensitive to changes in demand which has fallen off something of a high base - see chart 2.

In London average house prices have fallen by -10.1% in London over 2008, followed by -9.5% in East Anglia and -9.2% in the South East. However in northern England and Wales prices haven't fallen from such a high base. In the North East prices have fallen by -6.5%, followed by a -6.6% decline in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Average time taken to sell increases...
The average time to sell a property in December was 12 weeks up from 8.3 weeks a year ago and a low of 6 weeks in April 2007.

While the proportion of asking price being achieved goes down...
The proportion of the asking price being achieved reached 88.6% down from 93.5% a year ago and well down on the high of 95.7% seen in April 2007 - see chart 3.

This month's survey was based upon 5747 responses from 1809 agents and surveyors across all 2300 postcodes in England and Wales.