British house prices fell at the fastest pace since 2009 over the 12 months to September, data from mortgage lending Halifax showed on Friday, echoing other measures of the housing market which have slowed after a jump in interest rates.

Halifax said house prices were 4.7% lower last month than in September 2022, compared with a 4.5% annual fall in August.

Prices fell by 0.4% in September from August, a less severe monthly drop than August's 1.8% slide.

Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages, said the Bank of England looked set to keep rates high after pausing a run of 14 back-to-back increases last month, "constraining buyer demand and putting downward pressure on house prices into next year."

Rival lender Nationwide

said on Monday

its measure of house prices in September were 5.3% lower than a year earlier, matching their fall in August which was the biggest annual drop since 2009, although prices were unchanged in monthly terms.

The fall in house prices so far remains much less marked than the climb during the coronavirus pandemic which lasted into last year.

Halifax said the average price of homes remained 39,400 pounds ($47,953.74) above pre-pandemic levels at 278,601 pounds.

($1 = 0.8216 pounds) (Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Sarah Young)