Property prices show first fall since April 2009
Property prices in the UK fell during the month of May for the first time since April 2009 giving investors and homeowners an unwelcome reminder that we are not yet out of the woods. While the 0.2% fall covers England and Wales there were specific areas of the UK which experienced falls of 3.6% during May. The average price of a property in England and Wales fell from £165,596 to £165,314, a figure which is still well out of the range of the vast majority of first-time buyers.
This information was produced by the Land Registry which monitors completed transactions and releases this data into the public domain. The information can be many months "out of date" purely and simply because of the period taken to complete the vast majority of property purchases in the UK. However, it does give a stark reminder that the UK property sector is still struggling and is nowhere near on the verge of the former "boom times".
While the vast majority of property surveys are possibly not as pessimistic as the Land Registry report it has to be acknowledged that the vast majority have shown either a slowdown in property price growth or a slight reduction.
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