Property fallout hits South West

HOUSE prices in the UK fell for the seventh straight month in January, according to research company Hometrack. It said property values fell 0.4% on the month before.

The survey said the biggest falls were in Chester in Cheshire, and Bath and Plymouth in the West Country.

However, the firm, which bases its index on feedback from estate agents, argued that the fall was smaller than in the previous three months suggesting that the market was stabilising.

The average property price stood at £162,800 pounds, down from a peak of £167,700 in June last year. The change equates to a 3% fall.

Sellers have also been forced to shave their asking prices further. The average home owner accepted 7.3% below the advertised selling price compared to 7.1% in December.

'The start of 2005 hasn't brought much good news on the housing market front,' said John Wriglesworth, Hometrack's chief economist. 'House prices have fallen for seven consecutive months and the volume of sales is markedly down on previous months. We are yet to see signs of improvement.'

But he added: 'House price decreases have been less than in previous months, but it isn't until June that we are likely to see a recovery with house prices moving upwards.'

The number of sales agreed plunged 13% on a month earlier although this was said to be due to the 'normal seasonal slowdown'.

Houses took an average 7.7 weeks to sell compared with 7.5 last month, but the average number of viewings needed to secure a sale fell to 12 from 12.2 last month. The number of buyers registered with estate agents was down 12.8%.

The property market was most buoyant in North Lincolnshire (up 0.1%), Warwickshire (0.1%), Central London & City (0.0%), Hereford and Worcester (0.0%), and Suffolk (0.0%). The counties reporting the largest price falls were Avon (down 1.3%), West Midlands (0.9%), Buckinghamshire (0.9%), Staffordshire (0.8%) and Somerset (0.8%).

The cities reporting the worst falls were Chester (down 2.0%), Plymouth (1.8%), Bath (1.8%), Stoke (1.3%) and Lancaster (1.3%). The top five were Warwick (up 0.4%) and Middlesborough (0.1%) with Blackpool, Cambridge and Carlisle unmoved.