Following apartments in Greater London seeing the biggest increase in price in November, apartment prices have now taken a sharp tumble. 

Prices in the City have dropped 4.9% from December, said independent estate agents Team Association, which can be attributed to a number of factors including the interest rate rise.  Interestingly, apartment prices in Essex have also dropped by 8% which may be a ripple effect from the above.

In contrast, Greater London and Essex detached property prices rose; whilst East Anglia, West Midlands, Wales and the South West prices dropped and the South East remained stable.  

A surprise increase in semi detached property values was seen in Greater London with prices rising by 4.5%.  Meanwhile, the remaining regions all experienced a slight drop ranging from 0.4% rising to 2%.

On a national level, the survey reveals that property supply for January had increased by 215% making it the best month for new listings since last September and indicating that the Christmas short fall is a thing of the past as all regions reported a rise in property supply. With the number of buyers looking for property significantly outweighing the housing stock available over the last few months, it is hoped that this latest property surge will go some way towards addressing the demand and supply imbalance.

Alan Kirkman, director of communications at team, commented, “team estate agents around the country have felt this short-fall in supply, however, with Hip’s kicking into action over the next few months and the slow festive period now over we have already seen a dramatic increase in property supply and are confident this will continue into spring.”

The results from the team survey also indicate that national average property prices are down from £220,596 in December 2006 to £218,122 in January 2007.  However, regional property prices vary, especially when looking at the different house types.