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House prices static in Feb

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By Lee Wild

Date: Tuesday 01 Apr 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - House prices in England and Wales remained steady in February from the month before, although annual house price inflation fell for the sixth month in a row, a survey has revealed.

Figures from the Land Registry showed the average property cost £185,616, the same as January, but up just 5.3% from the £176,263 reported a year ago

Prices fell most in Wales, with a 1.1% drop, followed by London and the south east which slipped 0.4% and 0.7% respectively.

Despite this, London still claims the biggest annual rise, with the average house costing homebuyers in the capital a whopping £353,760, still up 10.6% on this time last year.

But it wasn’t all bad news, as homeowners in the West Midland enjoyed an increase in prices of 1.3% to £155,335 and those in Yorkshire & The Humber a 0.5% rise.

Activity levels have dropped off sharply though, with the number of transactions between September and December 2007 falling 23% to 90,880.

There was also a drop off in sales of homes costing more than a million pounds. The figure fell 30% to 381 between December 2006 and December 2007 and by 24% in London to 215.

Last week, Nationwide reported annual house price inflation at its lowest for 12 years in March, prompting the building society to predict interest cuts sooner rather than later.

Prices fell by 0.6% last month, it said, the fifth month running its survey has shown a fall and taking the average UK house price down to £179,110. The annual rate fell to 1.1% from 2.7% in February, the lowest rate since March 1996.

The society said it now expects to see an overall decline in prices in 2008 compared with its previous estimate of a flat year, though the estimate is still within its forecast range.