Properties have now lost 4.2 per cent in value this year, with falls in six of the past eight months, according to Halifax .
The annual rate of price change also turned negative during April, for the first time since February 1996, with prices now 0.9 per cent lower than they were in April 2007.
Nationwide Building Society recently said prices fell 1.1 per cent during April and also recorded a year-on-year fall.
Halifax expects a 'mid single-digit percentage decline' in house prices during 2008. Previously it said it was expecting 'low single-digit' price falls.
It added that there would be considerable regional variations, with Scotland likely to see modest rises, while parts of the country such as Wales and the West Midlands were expected to suffer above-average falls.
Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said: "Price falls should be viewed in the context of the substantial price rises over recent years. UK prices nearly doubled - 190 per cent over the 10 years to August, 2007."
He added that a growing economy, high employment levels, low interest rates and a shortage of new homes would continue to underpin prices.
Howard Archer of Global Insight said: "The Halifax's data tend to be more volatile than the Nationwide's, but they are telling the same story - that house prices are buckling markedly under the double whammy of stretched buyer affordability and very tight lending conditions."
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