UK house prices are on the longest losing streak since the financial crisis

UK house prices fell for a fifth month in a row in July, the longest stretch of declines since the financial crisis.

Values fell 0.2 per cent from June, bringing the average price for a home down to 302,251 pounds ($386,000), Acadata said in a report Monday. London remains a “mixed picture,” with the number of sales in the second quarter falling by 7 per cent from a year earlier and prices declining in almost two-thirds of the capital’s boroughs.

The British housing market is weakening after a three-decade boom amid slower economic growth, uncertainty created by Brexit and inflation outpacing wage growth over much of the past year. London, where the average house price is more than double the national average, has been hit harder than the rest of the country.

At the national level, annual price growth has slowed to 1.6 per cent, the least in six years, and sales have declined by 6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, Acadata said. The Bank of England’s interest-rate increase in August is expected “to result in a further reduction in housing market activity,” the report said.

The central bank hiked rates for only the second time since the financial crisis this month, and said that London’s property market is seeing weakness due to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and changes in migration. Policymaker Ian McCafferty said last week that the capital is seeing “significant change as a result of uncertainty around Brexit,” weighing on home prices and rents.