House prices in Britain will fall -10% next year as banks rein in mortgage lending and buyers are deterred by the economic slowdown, according to Hometrack.

Hometrack said its central forecast was for house prices to fall a further -10% in 2009 and -3% in 2010 - on top of falls of -9% in 2008 - making the peak-to-trough decrease in property prices roughly -22%. It did not give a monetary figure prediction.

Hometrack expects repossessions will reach a near record high of 70,000 next year as homeowners struggle to make mortgage payments during a recession, which is an increase from 45,000 in 2008. This figure is close to the highest level ever recorded by Hometrack, which was 75,500 in 1991, when the country was last in a recession.

Hometrack acknowledged that because of the market turmoil it wasn’t as sure about its prediction as in previous years, but the fact it has published one at all bucks a trend among British research groups who have abandoned house price estimates because of market volatility. Unlike Hometrack, Nationwide, Halifax and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have all decided not to publish a house price forecast for 2009.

Nationwide has published annual forecasts every year since 1988, except in 1992 and 1993 when the country’s last house price slump was at its worst.