oh dear: UK house prices suffered record drop in 2008

[AtW]

Bit of a moot point as far as you're concerned. By the time you've scraped together the pittance you need to buy that studio you fancy in the crappy part of Brum, prices will be beyond your reach again

If I am looking to buy I'd be looking at something with at least 150 sq mt place - thats meters, not foot.

I actually like 2 new houses next to each other few streets away - they have been on sale since at least end of 2006, still not sold - maybe I buy both of them for 100k euros or so and make one proper residence.

HTH

[sasguru]

Bit of a moot point as far as you're concerned. By the time you've scraped together the pittance you need to buy that studio you fancy in the crappy part of Brum, prices will be beyond your reach again

[AtW]

UK house prices plummeted by 16.2pc in 2008 in the biggest drop for a calendar year on record, according to the country's largest mortgage lender.

The average value of a home dropped by 2.2 per cent in December, according to the latest survey from Halifax. It's the biggest year-on-year fall since the Halifax began recording its data in 1983. The lender said the typical price of a home now stands at £159,799, back to August 2004 levels and that it fails to see much in the way of respite for the once-booming market in 2009 as the economy tumbles into recession.

Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, said: "Continuing pressures on incomes and the negative impact of the dislocation of the financial markets on the availability of mortgage finance are expected to exert further downward pressure on the market over the coming months.

"But a number of factors will help to support demand and should help to limit the downturn. Improving housing affordability and an easing in the pressure on the majority of households' finances should support market activity and prices. The house price to earnings ratio - a key affordability measure - is at its lowest for five and a half years."

The annual drop was sharper than during the recession of the early 1990s, according to Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight. He expects house prices to fall by a further 15pc in 2009, on the Halifax measure. (AtW's comment: not a very reliable one - on AtW's measure prices will fall by over than a value that will have 5 in it, but it won't be 15%.)

"It is still very difficult for many people to get a mortgage or find the required larger deposit," Mr Archer said. "Even if government measures to get banks to step up their lending increasingly take effect, it will clearly take time for confidence to improve and mortgage lending to pick up significantly.

Andrew Montlake, of mortgage brokers Cobalt Capital, said: "It may be 2009 but the ghosts of 2008 will continue to haunt us, and for some time yet. The November mortgage lending figures from the Bank are just another grim reminder of the death, last year, of easy money and consumer confidence, and there will be many more in the months ahead."

Halifax is part of HBOS, one of the UK banks forced to sell a large stake to the government in exchange for capital to shore up its balance sheet.

Separate figures showed mortgage approvals dropped to a record low in November, data from the Bank of England showed today.

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But what about sound fundamentals (overpopulation, immigrants etc)?