UK house prices drop most since 1992

UK house prices fell in June from a year earlier by the most since the end of the last recession in 1992 as banks starved the property market of loans, a report by Nationwide Building Society showed.

The price of an average home declined 6.3 percent from the same month last year to 172,415 pounds, the biggest drop since November 1992, Britain's fourth-biggest mortgage lender said yesterday in a statement. Prices dropped 0.9 percent from May.

UK mortgage approvals fell to the lowest in at least nine years in May and consumer confidence deteriorated to the lowest level in 18 years last month, reports showed.