Low sales drive house prices down

UK house prices continued falling in October and are now nearly 15% lower than a year ago, says the Nationwide.

The building society's latest survey says property prices fell by 1.4% this past month, pushing the annual rate of fall up from 12.4% to 14.6%.

This means the price of an average house was £158,872 - nearly £30,000 less than a year ago.

The Nationwide is the first major lender to report the state of the market in October.