UK housing mart' on its knees'

LONDON: House prices in Britain fell for the fourth consecutive month in September, as the credit crisis continued to worsen and the country's largest mortgage lender was forced into a takeover, the property website Rightmove reported yesterday.

Average house prices across the country fell one per cent in September to STG227,438 pounds (STG1 = RM6.27).

New listings per estate agent dropped to the lowest level for September that the index has ever recorded.

"The housing market is on its knees and will remain so until financial institutions address the disastrous state of the mortgage funding markets," said Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove.

By AP