Nationwide: House prices to drop 25%
Tuesday, 09 Sep 2008 11:21
House prices will fall by 25% claims Nationwide boss
UK house prices could fall 25 per cent from their peak, claims the boss of building society Nationwide.
Graham Beale, Nationwide chief executive, told the BBC the housing market will not see recovery until 2010, by which time house prices will have dropped from their peak by 25 per cent.
The prediction means some 2.5 million homeowners could be facing negative equity.
Mr Beale told the BBC: "I think that next year we will see a similar pattern to this year.
"We will see further falls in house prices. And I think before we really get to the new world, whatever that is, I think we will be into 2010."
The news comes as data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) shows some estate agents are now only selling one property a week with 81 per cent more chartered surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices.
Furthermore the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reports a 54 per cent fall in mortgage lending from a year ago.