UK house sales down by 1% in 2011

UK house sales fell just 1% last year to 869,000, one of the lowest totals on record, HM Revenue & Customs has said.

It means the property market has been in a three-year slump, with sales roughly half the levels recorded in the run up to the banking crisis in 2007.

Sales have been depressed by a combination of mortgage rationing by lenders, and rising unemployment.

The record low was in 2009, when just 848,000 homes were sold, the fewest since modern records began in 1978.

Source: BBC.co.uk