House prices in Britain continue to decline, registering a fall of 2.2 percent in October over the previous month, the country's largest mortgage lender and leading housing researcher Halifax said Thursday.
The fall in prices for the three months through October was 13.7 percent year-on-year
The average cost of a home in Britain now stands at 168,176 pounds (269,082 U.S. dollars), suffering a 30,000-pound (48,000-dollar) decline over the past year, which is about the level they were in October 2005, the latest Halifax House Price Index showed.
Conditions in the market remained "challenging" due to the financial turmoil and the lack of mortgages, said Halifax.
"Housing market conditions remain challenging in the face of the significant pressures on householders' incomes and the reduction in the availability of mortgage finance since last summer," said Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax.
However, housing affordability is "improving significantly," said Ellis, adding a positive note to the gloomy situation.
The house price to average earnings ratio, considered a key measure of affordability, has fallen below 5.0 for the first time in four-and-a-half years.
"We expect a further improvement in the ratio over the coming months," said Ellis.
The decline in Britain's housing market is expected to have contributed to the Bank of England rate cut announced midday Thursday.
Mortgage costs for some borrowers are expected to come down as a result of the cut in the bank's benchmark interest rate by a significant 1.5 percentage points.
Source: Xinhua
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