Barratt's share price continues to fall

Barratt's share price has dropped as far as 85p today, down from 121p yesterday as it continued to take a battering following bad news from the housing market.

Last summer, Barratt was trading as high as 1075p.

Meanwhile Taylor Wimpey has gone as low as 64.25p today, in its steepest decline since 1992.

The big falls come amid concerns that many housebuilders will be forced to reconsider the values of their assets in advance of their half-year results, resulting in big write-downs.

The Guardian reported that much of the focus has been on Barratt because it is reported to have debts of £1.7bn, which some analysts think brings it close to breaching banking covenants, even before a write-down.

And housebuilders' share price woe is coupled with more bad news from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) whose figures show that the number of homes changing hands has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years.

RICS said that estate agents sold an average of just 17.4 properties each in the three months to May - the lowest level since its records began in 1978.

But price data improved slightly, with 92.9% more surveyors saying they had seen prices fall in May than those reporting a rise.

In April, the proportion of surveyors reporting a fall stood at 94.7% more than those registering a rise.