The most expensive street was Parkside in Wimbledon, where average prices are more than £5m. More than half of the top 20 streets were in London.

The most expensive outside London is Woodlands Road West in Virginia Water, Surrey, followed by Burkes Road in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and Brundenell Avenue in Sandbanks, Dorset.

The most expensive street in the north of England was Withinlee Road in Macclesfield, Cheshire, where the average house price stands at £1.6m.

Higher numbers of properties for sale, combined with reduced demand, have caused the recent decrease in prices.

The year-on-year drop in property values was the first annual fall registered by the Halifax since November 2009.

However, the firm’s commercial director Miles Shipside warned that should price rises continue, gains will be lost in the long term as more buyers struggle to afford a new home.

Rightmove also revealed that choice has increased as property supply shows some indications of outstripping buyer demand. The average number of unsold stock per agent jumps to the highest level since October last year.

Rightmove also stated that this tentative recovery threatened by the prospect of a hung parliament.

In the event of a hung parliament where the Lib Dems and the Conservatives form a coalition government, HIPs would certainly go, as the Tories have also made ditching HIPs a manifesto commitment.

If the Lib Dems were to form a coalition with Labour, then the current incumbents may have to agree to abolish HIPs, in order to get co-operation from the Lib Dems to form a government. 

The Lib Dems manifesto promise to get rid of HIPs was unexpected, as they were the party that allowed HIPs to get on to the statute book by dropping their opposition at the very last minute.

According to the NAEA’s survey, the average number of homes for sale at each branch rose from 56 in February to 60 in March.

At the same time, the number of house hunters registered with each branch went up by 7% last month, to 274 per branch.

Sales have also risen, the NAEA said, from an average of 6.8 per branch in February to 8 in March.

The NAEA said all this was encouraging, especially with more sellers around.

Figures released today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that the number of mortgages for house purchase increased by 12% in February.

January was poor due to factors such as the effect of the end of the stamp-duty exemption in December 2009 and the severe winter weather. So the 35,000 mortgages and £5 billion advanced for house purchases signifies a modest recovery, although they were up by 49% in volume and by 67% in value from a year earlier.

Remortgaging

Remortgaging activity is still weak, although the 24,000 mortgages in February was up 2%, representing an increase for the first time in five months.

Fixed or Variable Rate

With interest rates low, fixed rate mortgages remain less popular than in the recent past. The proportion of fixed rate mortgages in February was at the lowest share in 5 years at 47%. The share of tracker products in February was again at 36% which is at its highest level since the CML began recording this data in March 2005.

BBC News – Budget 2010: Alistair Darling set for stamp duty move

Its latest figures show that the number of mortgages approved in February was 35,275. This figure in January was 35,154.

The average value of house purchase approvals was £140,800, which was 11.5% higher than a year ago.

As a result of the stamp duty threshold being brought back down from £175,000 to £125,000, the BBA have said the market was still depressed by the rush of buyers to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday at the end of last year.

House purchase approvals were 16% higher than in February 2009 (30,457) but they are still well below the December 2009 figure, which was high due to the year-end change to stamp duty.

This has sparked concerns that the US housing market’s recovery could falter. This is turn could effect the overall US economy.

According to the National Association of Realtors, sales dropped by 0.6% in February.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have announced that new instruction and new buyer enquiries rebounded in February following the January dip, which was caused by the bad weather.

However the balance between buyers and sellers may be changing, as RICS say new instructions outpaced inquiries from new buyers in February. 

The rise in house prices over the past year has been attributed to a shortage of properties for sale, however with more properties coming onto the market and with less buyers, this may hold back or slow down house price increases in 2010.

The full report can be viewed HERE.