New-build city centre apartment complexes have been the biggest losers as property prices have plunged, according to a survey by property website mouseprice.

The Birmingham Canal area, with many new developments, was the hardest hit, with a 17.3% drop in the value of flats in the past year. A property that was worth £185,000 in February would be priced at around £153,000 now.
 

"Interestingly, the greatest price falls are not connected with how expensive the relative locations are," said Selwyn Lim, director of Mouseprice. "Price falls have not discriminated according to how much a property cost in the first place, or how desirable an area was."

Many buy-to-let investors have been burnt, in Birmingham developments such as Centenary Plaza and King Edwards Wharf, both built in 2003, where they have been selling for less than they paid, according to mouseprice.

The same has happened in Manchester, London, Leeds and Sheffield, where apartment blocks have been built on brownfield or industrial sites, often beside canals or rivers. Many of them now stand empty, or have not been completed.
 

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