British house prices fell at their fastest pace in 12-and-a-half years in the three months to May, a survey showed today.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its seasonally adjusted house prices balance for May fell to -49 from a downwardly-revised -41 in the three months to April.
May's reading was the lowest since November 1992, when millions were still trapped in negative equity after Britain's 1980s house price boom ended in a crash.
"The housing market continued to soften into May," said RICS. "A tepid upturn in buyer activity at the beginning of the year seems to have fizzled out."
The ratio of completed sales to unsold property, which some economists consider a better measure of the housing market's strength than prices, was at 29 per cent for the third month running - off a low of 28 per cent in February.
Although that pointed to some stabilisation in the housing market, RICS said that ratio remained below the long-run average of 37 per cent, suggesting that prices will remain under some pressure over coming months.
New buyer enquiries slipped back in May, RICS said.
An array pf UK economic data has come in weaker than expected in recent weeks, and policymakers have highlighted a slowdown in household spending as a key economic risk.
That has raised expectations that interest rates may have peaked at 4.75 per cent, something RICS says could prompt a turnaround in housing sales activity.
RICS said the number of homes on surveyors' books slipped back in May to 72 homes per surveyor from 73 in April.
The number of new sellers continued to rise but at a slightly slower pace than the prior month.