Home prices 'slowed after attacks'

The London housing market has slowed dramatically since the terrorist attacks on America in September, the Halifax reveals today.

Prices in the last three months of 2001 went up by only 2.2 per cent, having soared by 15 per cent between January and September.

The average price of a London property bought on a mortgage is nearly £180,000, the Halifax said.

In spite of record recent house price rises, however, the average home buyer in Greater London now spends only 17 per cent of gross annual income on mortgage payments, compared with the peak of 41 per cent paid by borrowers in 1990, suggesting that there is little risk of an early Ninetiesstyle property crash.

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