London leads house price plunge into ‘the red zone’ as market records worst performance since financial crisis

London suffered a sharp 4.3% fall in the fourth quarter of 2017
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images
Alex Lawson @MrAlexLawson13 February 2018

London has led a nationwide slump in house prices, prompting a warning that the “dial is in the red zone” on the housing market.

Fresh data today showed annual UK house prices fell for the first time in six years at the start of 2018 amid a slump in demand.

Values dropped 0.4% in January compared with a year earlier, figures from Acadata showed.

The study also revealed London suffered a sharp 4.3% fall in the fourth quarter of 2017, its worst performance since the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.

Jitters over the economy amid topsy-turvy Brexit negotiations, prospects of interest rate rises and inflationary pressures have dented demand for housing. Mortgage approvals dived to the lowest in three years in December despite efforts by the government to help first-time buyers.

Acadata chairman Peter Williams said: “This is the eighth consecutive month in which the annual rate of increase has been declining, and now the dial is in the red zone.”

Month-on-month, values rose 0.2% from December to January with the average UK house costing £301,477 and the London average £589,553.

Last week data showed more than 768,000 people in Britain have become property millionaires thanks to the surge in the value of housing due to a lack of affordable homes.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in