UK house prices fell at their sharpest annual pace since 2009 after soaring mortgage rates curtailed how much buyers could afford, one of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders said.
Halifax said the average value of a home fell 1.9% in August alone to £279,569 ($349,570), the sharpest monthly pace since November. It left prices 4.6% lower than a year ago when the value of UK property peaked.
The findings echo those of rival lender Nationwide Building Society, whose own survey last week showed prices falling 5.3% from their peak a year ago, the fastest pace since 2009. Together, the reports indicate the market is now roughly half way through the 10% slump in prices that economists have forecast.
The Bank of England has raised interest rates 14 times since late 2021 tame inflation, and that’s straining the finances of consumers already hit with with higher food and energy bills.
“We do expect further downward pressure on property prices through to the end of this year and into next, in line with previous forecasts,” Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages, said in a statement Thursday.
Read more:
- UK House Prices Fall the Most in 14 Years, Nationwide Says
- UK Property Sellers Cut Asking Prices at Sharpest Pace This Year
- London House Prices Record the First Annual Drop Since 2019
