Britain has an unhealthy obsession with house prices, particularly during those relatively rare periods when they are falling rather than rising. So news that the cost of a home has fallen for four months in a row will inevitably lead to speculation about a property crash.
It isn’t happening. Yes, it’s August and there’s not much news around, but even so the idea that a 2.4% annual fall in prices means the property market is in crisis is nonsense. Asset prices can go down as well as up, and a correction was always likely after the post-lockdown boom. That correction has been made inevitable by the sharp increase in mortgage rates over the past year.
