UK House Prices

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - British house prices fell at their fastest pace since mid-2005 in the three months to October and surveyors' confidence in the price outlook hit its lowest level in more than four years, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' house price balance for October fell to -22.2 from a downwardly revised -14.9 in September. Analysts had forecast a reading of -20.

Enquiries from potential buyers fell for an eleventh straight month and surveyors were more pessimistic about the price outlook than at any time since April 2003.

"Past interest rate increases combined with a tightening in mortgage lending conditions have prevented many would-be buyers from getting on the housing ladder," the institution said.

Surveyors reported price falls across all regions in England and Wales except for London, where price growth has yet to turn negative.

They said sustained weakness in demand was resulting in greater stocks of unsold property and looser market conditions. The ratio of completed sales to the stock of unsold property fell from 38.3 percent in September to 35.7 -- its lowest since May 2006.

Still, the sales-to-stock ratio is only 1.5 percentage points below the survey's long-run average and the fall in new property coming onto the market should provide a prop to prices.

"Those already on the property ladder feel under little pressure to sell their property," the survey noted.