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Two of Britain's biggest mortgage lenders, Halifax and Nationwide, have ditched their annual house price forecasts for 2009 because they think the market is too volatile to judge.
As well as their long-standing monthly property price surveys, which will continue next year, the two lenders usually forecast in December what will happen to house prices over the next year.
The Halifax's monthly house price survey has been published since 1983, with a forecast at the end of every year for at least the past decade. However, a spokesman for the bank said it was "not appropriate" considering the bank's impending takeover by Lloyds TSB, which is due to be completed on 19 January.
"It would be effectively forecasting into when Halifax is part of Lloyds banking group," he said.
The Nationwide, whose database goes back to 1952, started publishing its monthly survey in 1991, although it had been publishing quarterly surveys since 1977. It made its first annual forecast in 1988. It said conditions were too tough at present to predict where house prices would be over the coming 12 months given the property market slump and uncertain economic outlook.
"It was decided that because of the volatility in the market we cannot do a forecast as it could be a number that would change very quickly early on next year," a Nationwide spokeswoman said. "When things have settled down a bit we may be in a position to review this next year."
The society previously decided not to make an annual forecast in 1992 and 1993 during the depths of the last property crash.
House prices have gone through a record slump over the past year as mortgage lenders have tightened their criteria and the economy has deteriorated. The fall in sales and prices is expected to continue into 2009.
Victor Blank, chairman of Lloyds TSB, said this week he thought there might be a further 10% fall next year, while John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, said he thought that prices might eventually drop by as much as 30% from their peak in the middle of 2007.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has already taken a similar stance to the two lenders, declining this week to make any forecast of next year's market because it would be "incredibly difficult to predict prices in the current volatile environment".
However, latest figures from the CML showed that housing market activity is expected to remain extremely subdued with around 700,000 housing transactions in 2009 - down from around 900,000 this year and 1.6m in 2007.
The CML also reported that total mortgage advances during November had sunk to £14.6bn, the lowest level since February 2002. The figure was 22% lower than in October and 51% below the level for November last year.
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