Barclays forecast a 30% drop in house prices in total

The head of Barclays bank has predicted that house prices will fall in total by 30 per cent, ahead of the latest UK unemployment figures on Wednesday. The chief executive, speaking in an interview with Sky News painted a bleak picture as he criticised mortgage borrowing levels in the past decade and warned that the UK was only halfway through a slump with house prices set for bigger falls still: ‘We’ve got another 10 to 15 per cent to fall between now and the end of the next year’, as unemployment is likely to go up to at least 7 per cent.