British house prices fell at the fastest pace since 2009 over the 12 months to September, data from mortgage lending Halifax showed on Friday, echoing other measures of the housing market which have cooled after a jump in interest rates.
Halifax said house prices were 4.7% lower last month than in September 2022, compared with a 4.5% annual fall in August. It was the biggest drop since August 2009 when the housing market was still in shock after the global financial crisis.
Prices fell by 0.4% in September from August, a less severe monthly drop than August’s 1.8% slide.
Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages, said the Bank of England looked set to keep rates high after pausing a run of 14 back-to-back increases last month, “constraining buyer demand and putting downward pressure on house prices into next year.”
Rival lender Nationwide said on Monday its measure of house prices in September were 5.3% lower than a year earlier, matching their fall in August which was the biggest annual drop since 2009, although prices were unchanged in monthly terms.
Andrew Wishart, an economist with Capital Economics, said he expected a further drop of 5% or 6% in house prices on top of the 5% decline already seen since their peak.
The fall in house prices so far remains much less marked than the climb during the coronavirus pandemic which lasted into last year.
Halifax said the average price of homes remained £39,400 pounds above pre-pandemic levels at £278,601.
