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LONDON (Citywire) - While homeowners and property investors absorb the latest dire figures on house price falls, the reality is that house prices are already 20 percent or more off their peak according to property veteran Simon Agace of estate agent Winkworth.

Last week Nationwide reported that prices are now falling at the fastest rate since it began recording data in 1991, with an average drop of 1.7 percent in July - more than double the 0.8 percent decline recorded in June.

House prices are now falling at an annualised rate of 8.1 percent, the fastest rate of decline for nearly 20 years, according to Nationwide while Halifax reckons the rate of decline is 10 percent a year. The average property price in the UK has dropped 3,099 pounds - down from 172,415 pounds in June to 169,316 pounds in July. This is the lowest level since August 2006.

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at Global Insight, said it was 'odds-on that house prices will continue to head rapidly south.' He expects prices to fall by 15percent this year, with further falls of 12 percent in 2009, to leave the average home costing 136,196 pounds.

But Agace, chief executive of estate agent Winkworth, who has been in this market for over 40 years, says prices have already fallen by up to 20 percent. 'Forget these monthly reports of price drops, whether they be a couple of per cent or just a fraction, the fact of the matter is that property prices have fallen between 15 percent and 20 percent, and sometimes more (depending on the area in question), since their peak in spring/early summer 2007,' says Agace.

Winkworth says asking prices alone have fallen by around 7 percent to 10 percent, while a further 10 percent to 13 percent is being negotiated off these. For example, Winkworth sold a good two bedroom flat in Acton for 265,000 pounds in early 2007. The same flat went back on the market in April 2008 for 254,950 pounds. The vendor needed a quick sale, so it was reduced to 249,950 pounds and then again to 229,950 pounds. A sale has finally been agreed at 225,000 pounds.

Similarly, Winkworth Hammersmith has just agreed a sale on an unmodernised house in Gunterstone Road at 1,175,000 pounds. Last year a similar property achieved 1.5 million pounds. 'The market has fallen quicker than anyone, other than the vendors and agents, who are in the thick of it, could have ever anticipated,' says Agace. He points out that prices are currently being agreed well under asking price.

But looking on the bright side Agace believes that house prices might have already bottomed out. 'The transactional level may have just about reached the bottom, so things could soon be on the up,' he says.

From: http://uk.reuters.com/