Britain’s housing market seems locked in a dramatic downward spiral, as the value of homes throughout the UK continues to drop significantly.
According to statistics revealed this morning, the price of homes fell by an average of 12.4 percent over the course of the past year.

The same survey also found that home values declined by 1.7 percent in September alone and this suggests that the rate of decline is now more dramatic than before. In fact, the last time that residential property were in such a prolonged decline was seventeen years ago, in 1991.

Prospective investors and homeowners are also being warned that the situation in the UK is certain to become worse in the next several months.

The difficulty of securing a mortgage, due to the credit crunch, last week’s Wall Street meltdown and the delay in accepting US President George Bush’s $700 billion bailout plan, means that housing prices will remain in a free-fall in the UK, dropping by an estimated 20 percent by the second half of 2009.

Some analysts, however, suggest that the best option for prospective investors would be to invest abroad, and especially in those regions of Central and Eastern Europe that have been far less negatively impacted by the credit crunch and financial meltdown, and where the real estate market remains competitive.

Slovakia is the hands down winner when it comes to the health of its economy and the Bratislava property market is still growing. Specialists do, however, caution that investors must be certain to carefully take into consideration the property’s location, its lay-out, as well as its architecture, as Bratislava residents and businesses are now increasingly willing and able to pay more for quality, prime location real estate.