Yahoo Finance House prices fall for first time since 2012
UK house prices posted an annual fall for the first time since 2012 in June.
According to Nationwide, house prices fell by 0.1% compared with June of last year. In monthly terms, prices were down by 1.4% in June following a 1.7% fall in May.
The falls come as the housing market all but ground to a halt. The market has been hurt hard by coronavirus over the past three months.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "It is unsurprising that annual house price growth has stalled, given the magnitude of the shock to the economy as a result of the pandemic. Economic output fell by an unprecedented 25% over the course of March and April – almost four times more than during the entire financial crisis.
"Housing market activity also slowed sharply as a result of lockdown measures implemented to control the spread of the virus. While latest data from HMRC showed a slight pickup in residential property transactions from April’s low, in May they were still 50% lower than the same month in 2019."
Gardner added: "Annual house price growth slowed to -0.1%, from 1.8% in May. This is the first time that annual house price growth has been in negative territory since December 2012."
The slowing down in activity has meant mortgage levels are at record lows.
There were only 9,300 mortgage approvals in May, down from 73,700 in February and 86% lower than in May 2019.
Economists at Nationwide expect the housing market to remain subdued in the months ahead even though the economy has been released from full lockdown.
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