U.K. house prices fell in June by the most since the end of the last recession as banks starved the property market of loans, Nationwide Building Society said.

The price of an average home declined 6.3 percent from a year earlier to £172,415 (�218,250), the biggest drop since November 1992, Britain's fourth-biggest mortgage lender said today in a statement. Prices dropped 0.9 percent from May.

Real-estate stocks had their worst performance in more than 20 years in the second quarter. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King predicts extremely weak activity in the housing market. Mortgage approvals fell to the lowest in at least nine years in May and consumer confidence deteriorated to the lowest level in 18 years last month, reports showed yesterday.

Northern Ireland led declines on the year, while Scotland recorded the only annual gain, Nationwide said.