UK house prices are falling at a record rate, losing 8.1% of their value during the past year, figures show today. The Nationwide Building Society said the slide was the fastest annual rate of decline since it launched its index in January 1991.
It added that prices fell for the ninth month in a row during July, dropping by a further 1.7% - more than double the 0.8% drop seen in June.
The gloomy figures came as market research organisation GfK NOP said its consumer confidence index dived to a record low during the month, as people worried about the outlook for the economy and their own financial situation.
The group's main index slumped to -39 in July, the lowest level recorded since the survey began in 1974 and below the levels seen during the 1990s recession.
Nationwide said the average home in the UK now costs £169,316 sterling, nearly £15,000 less than this time last year and the lowest since August 2006. But it added that, on average, prices were still nearly £11,000 higher than they were three years ago.
The figures will do little to improve economists' sentiment about the housing market, with their consensus now showing house price falls of between 15% and 20% during 2008 and 2009, according to lender Halifax Bank of Scotland.
Today's figures come following a week of gloomy data on the market, with the Bank of England showing the number of mortgages approved for house purchase had dived by nearly 70% during the past year to hit a new record low.
Just 36,000 new loans were arranged for people moving house during June, while net mortgage lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, fell to a near eight-year low of £3.1 billion.
Meanwhile, a report by ratings agency Standard & Poor's yesterday warned that around 70,000 homeowners were already in negative equity following recent house price falls, with a total of 1.7 million people likely to be plunged into it if prices drop by a further 17%.
