HOUSE prices in North West London took another slight knock this month, according to the Hometrack database.

Figures are down 0.2 per cent on March compared with a dip of 0.1 per cent across the country.

The average price paid for a detached house in North West London in the past four weeks was £451,900. Semis averaged at £264,900, terraced homes went for £242,500 and flats averaged £193,500.

The last rise seen in average London house prices was in October last year.

Twenty boroughs reported house price falls the greatest dips were in Dagenham and Barking (-0.8 per cent), Kensington and Chelsea (-0.7 per cent), Merton (-0,5 per cent and Camden, also minus 0.5 per cent).

The only boroughs where prices rose were Tower Hamlets (0.2 per cent) and Brent, Greenwich and Hounslow where values crept up an imperceptible 0.1 per cent.

Price falls are still widespread across London especially in the priciest boroughs towards the centre.

The ten boroughs with the largest falls have an average property value of £263,610 whereas the ten boroughs with stable or marginally rising prices have an average value of £208,750. The average house price for London as a whole is £230,500.

When the totals are adjusted to compensate for unusual circumstances which distort the trend, the survey reveals that the average price paid for a house in North West London this month was still more than a quarter of a million £251,500.

April's nine per cent seasonal increase in the number of new properties for sale in London contrasts sharply with a one per cent fall in new buyers registering.

Prices achieved as a percentage of the asking price calculated from sales of homes across the country fell again for the 11th month running. The 94.5 per cent average was the lowest for more than two years.

According to agents, it is currently averaging five weeks to find a buyer after 12 viewings.

This is well down on the 2.8 weeks to sell and nine viewings per sale at the height of the boom last May.

Mortgage repayments as a percentage of income remain low due to exceptionally low interest rates.

Prices are now more than 4.5 times average household incomes, the highest for more than 10 years although John Wriglesworth, Hometrack's housing economist, says lenders' current policy of limiting loans to less than four times incomes is putting a check on price rises.

"Unless lenders relax their lending criteria, we can expect very little house price inflation in the near future," forecasts Mr Wriglesworth.

April 30, 2003 11:30