Monthly house prices down in England and Wales by 2 per cent in February, according to the latest figures from Land Registry.
The average house price is now £153,862 which represents an annual decrease of 16.5 per cent. In London the average price has fallen by 15.6 per cent in the last year to now stand at £298,563.
It is the eighteenth month in a row where the annual rate of change has fallen, in contrast to 21 months of uninterrupted increases in the average annual rate of change between December 2005 and August 2007.
The North West was the region with the most significant monthly price fall with a movement of -4.1 per cent.
The most up-to-date figures available show that during December 2008 the number of completed house sales fell by 55 per cent to 36,341 from 81,300 in December 2007. In London 3,957 house sales were completed in December 2008 compared with 9,543 in December 2007, representing a fall of 59 per cent.