House prices down again

The latest figures from Nationwide have revealed that house pieces fell by 2.5 per cent in May.

On an annual basis the average price is now 4.4 per cent less than a year ago, possibly indicating that some recent buyers could be heading for negative equity.

In addition to this, the lender noted that its consumer confidence index in April showed an average expectation of a 1.7 per cent drop in prices over the next six months.

Those looking to obtain a home and not wishing to see its value fall below the cost of acquiring it may consider the self build option, in which the value of the home could be much greater than the cost of the land, materials and building work.

Nationwide's figure exceeded the drop for May recorded by property website Hometrack last week of 0.5 per cent.