Home prices seen falling 10% in Britain in 2009Sunday, January 11, 2009 (01-11) 04:00 PST London -- House prices in Britain will fall 10 percent this year as banks rein in mortgage lending and buyers are deterred by the economic slowdown, a leading property researcher forecast late last month. More BusinessHometrack acknowledged that because of the market turmoil it isn't as sure about its prediction as in previous years, but the fact it has published one at all bucks a trend among British research groups who have abandoned house-price estimates because of market volatility. "It is harder to forecast," Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research, said. "This is a central forecast, but the range is getting wider." He could not specify how much wider the range was for 2009 than it had been in previous years. Hometrack said its central forecast was for house prices to fall a further 10 percent in 2009 and 3 percent in 2010 - on top of a 9 percent fall in 2008 - making the peak to trough fall in property prices roughly 22 percent. It did not give a monetary figure prediction.
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