British property prices fall for fourth month running

British house prices fell for a fourth month in October and a property-market recovery is unlikely without sustained economic growth, analysts at Hometrack said.

Prices declined 0.1 per cent from September and 0.4 per cent from a year earlier, the London-based property research group said.

The annual decline was the smallest in two years. Sales jumped 9.2 per cent as prices of old housing stock were lowered.

While data on October 25 showed Britain exited recession in the third quarter, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week that the recovery is "slow and uncertain".

Mortgage approvals rose to a four-month high in September as the Bank of England's new credit-easing plan boosted the availability of home loans.

Still, Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research, said in the statement: "The foundation of any national and sustainable recovery in the housing market rests on growth in the wider economy and household incomes." Demand for homes was "likely to slow down in the run-up to the year-end, with agents looking to push through as many sales as possible", he said.