The housing market has halved in a year, according to a series of reports.
It emerged yesterday that house sales through estate agents are down 50 per cent and the number of Britons taking out a mortgage has collapsed by 46 per cent.
The National Association of Estate Agents said its firms sold an average of seven homes in March, compared to 14 last year.
One firm, from Essex, said: “Agents in the county are using comments such as ‘dire’, ‘apathy’ and ‘miserable’.
“There are now clear signs of redundancies and offices closing together with a strong feeling that this market is similar to 1989 (the last crash).”
At the same time, just 35,417 Britons got a loan to buy a house, the lowest monthly level since records began.
At the height of the boom in 2002, more than 3,000 loans were handed out every day - today it has plunged to 1,100.
Analysts at Capital Economics said it is a sign that lenders are “effectively closing their doors to all but the most credit-worthy borrowers”.
A third warning signal came from the Bank of England which claimed the number of people pulling out of buying homes because they cannot get a loan, or because they lose their nerve, had jumped.
About 75 per cent of cheap loans have disappeared since last summer and …
