House prices fell by 0.5% in February, the fourth consecutive monthly decline says Nationwide.

The annual rate of house price inflation fell from 4.2% in January to 2.7% in February, the lowest since November 2005. This figure brings the cost of an average property in the UK to £179,358.

Despite the fall in house price growth, Nationwide warned against gloomy predictions for the housing market, saying that a recession was “a remote risk for the UK economy”, quoting Bank of England MPC member Andrew Sentance words recently.

Main Points
- House prices fell by 0.5% in February, the fourth consecutive monthly decline
- The annual rate of house price inflation fell from 4.2% to 2.7%
- UK recession “a remote risk for the UK economy”

Commenting on the figures Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said: “The price of a typical house fell by 0.5% during February, bringing the annual rate of house price growth down to 2.7%. This is the fourth consecutive monthly fall in house prices and brings the annual rate of house price inflation to its lowest since November 2005.

The trend in prices is clearly weakening, but the size of the drop in the annual rate between January and February perhaps overstates the rate of cooling as it partly reflects the particularly strong increase in prices in February last year. The 3-month on 3-month rate of price growth rate fell to -1% in February, down from -0.4% the previous month. The average price of a typical property now stands at £179,358, an increase of £4,653, or £12.75 per day, over the last 12 months.”