Another report has emerged predicting large declines in property values over the months ahead.
House prices in the UK could fall 25 percent below last year's high of around £200,000 to reach an average of just £150,000 by the end of 2009, it has been predicted. According to a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), properties could see £50,000 knocked off their value by 2010.
Over the last 12 months, prices have dropped by seven percent, the CEBR calculates. Last month alone they dropped by 1.3 percent. Such falls are expected to continue in the months ahead, causing the market to bottom out at the end of next year.
"Confidence in the housing market has been shattered as lack of mortgage availability has left few sellers chasing even fewer buyers and expectations of falling prices have become embedded," said CEBR spokesman Ben Read.
Prices will be broadly flat in 2010, the organisation predicts, before rising by around 20 percent over the two years following. However, by 2012, prices will still be around three percent lower than their 2007 peak.
The CEBR's forecast is slightly less gloomy that that of academic Andrew Clare, professor of asset management at Cass Business School, who told the Guardian that house prices will not bounce back until 2023.
