British house prices will stagnate this year and next and there is a two in three chance that prices fall on an annual basis at some point in 2008, a Reuters poll of property market analysts showed.
The survey calls a definitive end to a decade-long housing boom, fuelled on cheap credit, that paused briefly three years ago but is now reeling from a slowing economy, debt loads, and the grip of a global credit crunch.
Nearly all of the analysts polled said UK housing was too expensive compared with fundamentals, but only by a median 15 percent, the same as three months ago. Some rated British homes as very overvalued, with estimates as high as 40 percent.
But in a group -- as they have been many times over the boom that has tripled average house prices over the past 10 years or so -- economists were not willing to forecast a property price fall to bring affordability back in line.
