Land Registry: House prices fell 1.1% in March

By SIMON LAMBERT
Updated: 08:42 EST, 4 May 2011

House prices slipped by 1.1% in March – the biggest monthly fall since February 2009 – according to the Land Registry.

Pinpointed: The Land Registry has shown where prices are falling

The report, based on official figures for property values in England and Wales, showed the average home down 2.3% over the past year at £160,995.

The Land Registry data also showed an already low level of transactions taking a further 15% year-on-year dive over autumn and winter, the most recently available figures.

Property sales averaged just 51,548 per month from October 2010 to January 2011 – down on the 60,284 per month seen in the same period the year before.

This was broadly in line with the level seen throughout last year, although transactions are at the bottom of the range seen during that period.

Even the previously robust London housing market weakened in March, the data showed, with prices slipping 1% to an average of £336,828.

However, the capital had annual house price inflation of 0.8%, leaving it as the last remaining region to keep its head above water, with all others declining year-on-year.

The biggest fall was seen in the North East where prices are down 9.3% annually, followed by Wales (-7.2%) and Yorkshire and Humber (-5.3%).

Figures from Nationwide for UK house prices in April, based on its mortgages approval data, showed the market slipping back 0.2% in the month and 1.3% annually.

Bank of England mortgages data, also released today, showed a slight uptick in mortgages for house purchase to 47,557, the highest level since November last year.

But the figure is still down on the 48,967 in March 2010, and about 40% down on the long-term average.

Richard Sexton, business development director of the UK's biggest property valuations agency e.surv, said: 'The housing market is creeping towards rehabilitation in the South East, but for the rest of the country it remains a painful process.

'The average LTV has limped over the 60% barrier for the first time in three years, and high LTV's are making more of an appearance - but not in the volumes we need to kick-start the market into a more spectacular recovery.

'Slightly more first time buyers are meeting draconian lending criteria, but this is tip of the iceberg stuff. In reality, the market is being propped up by buy-to-let landlords piling into cheap bricks and mortar. Until lenders put a greater volume of high LTV products onto the market, the housing market will remain in a state of suspended animation.'