UK House prices fell -2.3% in February and by a record -17.7% year-on-year, taking average prices back to levels last seen in August 2004, according to mortgage lender Halifax in its latest monthly survey.

February’s monthly decline more than offset January’s upwardly revised increase of 2% and was slightly worse than analysts’ forecasts for a fall of -2%.

The annual decline, which is calculated by comparing prices in the three months to February with those a year earlier, is the biggest on record and means prices are down -19.7% from its peak in August 2007, with the average home now worth £160,327.

Halifax’s results closely match those published by rival lender Nationwide, which reported an annual decline of -17.6% for last month.

Halifax, now part of Lloyds Banking Group, said the ratio of house prices to earnings, a key affordability measure, was at its lowest for six years at around 4.4, down from 5.8 at the peak of the boom, but still above its long-run average of 4.0.