House prices in further slide

House prices saw quarter-on-quarter falls of 0.4 per cent in February, taking them down to 2.8 per cent lower than in the same three months of 2010, Halifax, Britain's largest mortgage lender, said yesterday.

Prices in the three months to February saw the biggest annual drop since October 2009, according to Halifax, which put February's single-month decline at 0.9 per cent.

The lender is still predicting an overall 2 per cent slide in prices over 2011, but some economists are more bearish still.

"The fundamentals remain largely unfavourable for the housing market even though signs that fewer houses are now coming on to the market could provide significant support for prices if sustained," said Howard Archer, at IHS Global Insight. He is forecasting price falls of up to 5 per cent this year.