UK house sales drop to '50 year low'

House sales in the UK have fallen to their lowest level for almost 50 years, it has been reported.

According to new statistics from HM Revenue and Customs, just 62,000 houses were sold last month - the lowest number since records were first collated in 1959.

The Daily Telegraph claims that an average of just 700 mortgages are presently being taken out every day, compared to nearly 3,000 when the housing market was booming.

Katie Tucker from brokerage firm Mortgage Force commented: "New buyers are either waiting for lending terms to improve, and many would-be home movers are stuck in a property losing value in a chain going nowhere as the bottom rung keeps falling out."

Capital Economics property economist Seema Shah said she foresaw no prospect of a "rapid end" to the correction in the housing market.

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