British house prices fell at their sharpest rate in nearly a decade in March, the Nationwide building society said today.
The mortgage lender said prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.6 per cent this month, the biggest decline since June 1995.
That brought the annual rate of increase to just 7.9 per cent, its slowest since June 2001, from 10.2 per cent in February.
The Nationwide said the average house price stood at £153,876 in March.
The figures, which follow reports suggesting five interest rate rises in 18 months are taking their toll on British consumers, are likely to boost speculation the Bank of England can afford to wait before raising borrowing costs again.
Falling house prices so close to the expected polling day of May 5th could be politically damaging for the Labour government which has staked its re-election bid on the strong performance of the economy since it first came to power in 1997.