Quarterly trend improving

Published 29th Jan 2009

The January fall recorded by the Nationwide is lower than the 2.5 per cent slump in value seen last month.

Martin Gahbauer, the Nationwide's senior economist, said that although the quarterly trend was improving, it was "too early to say that this marks the start of a sustained improvement in the short-term trend".

Mr Gahbauer said that the number of house sales had remained poor in recent months, with mortgage approvals falling to a record low of 27,000 in November, and partial figures for December suggesting only a small improvement since then. However the number of viewings by prospective purchasers is increasing.

"The increasing level of inquiries suggests that activity levels have a reasonable chance of recovering from their recent lows once an end to the recession is in sight and/or the recent government interventions lead to an improvement in the availability of credit."

Source: ' Times '

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