High prices keep homebuyers off London properties

London house prices posted their largest annual drop in almost six years in February as high values deterred buyers.

The average asking price in the capital fell 0.4 percent to 641,116 pounds ($797,000) this month from a year earlier, the first annual decline since April 2011, property website Rightmove Plc said on Feb 20. While asking prices gained 2.6 percent from January, that's the weakest monthly gain for a February since 2009 during the depths of the recession.

London's housing market underperformed the rest of the country during 2016 after stretched affordability, Britain's vote to leave the European Union and tax increases on investors in the early part of the year weighed on demand.