The average property price is now £172,108, down from about £200,000 in September last year. This 13.4 per cent annual fall is the largest decline since Halifax's series began in 1983. Prices in the three months to September were 12.4 per cent lower than in the same period last year, which is another record low.
Millions of homeowners received a boost yesterday when the Bank of England cut interest rates by half a point to 4.5 per cent. Top of Form
Yesterday's rate cut will knock hundreds of pounds off their annual mortgage bill.
But some borrowers will have to wait and see if their lender is going to pass on the rate cut by lowering their SVRs. HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Barclays and HSBC all said they were cutting their SVR by half a point, but Nationwide Building Society, Northern Rock and Abbey have yet to make a decision.
Some experts said that the fact that the drop in prices in September was the most modest since March indicated that house price falls may be moderating.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Halifax, said: "The overall price decrease in the three months to September was very similar to that in the previous quarter, indicating that the trend rate of decline may be beginning to stabilise."
Capital Economics is forecasting that prices will fall by 35 per cent from their peak in August last year, while property experts in the futures market are betting that prices will fall by 30 per cent.
Oliver Gilmartin, senior economist at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, gave warning that all but the most cash-rich first-time buyers, essential to the health of the housing market, would still find it difficult to secure a mortgage, despite the recent bank bailout.
"A return to the lavish days of bank lending based on small deposits is not in the offing, with a sluggish economy likely to raise the incidence of default. Amid this backdrop, conservative loan to value ratios will remain a barrier to many first time buyers," he said.
The lack of first-time buyers will act as further drag on house prices as sellers are forced to cut asking prices to secure a sale.
House sales have fallen to historically low levels, as buyers struggle to secure homeloans.
