PHOTO: National property prices expected to fall 14 per cent from peak to trough.

A worse-than-expected slump in home loans has sparked concern that the current fall in property prices across the country will double before bottoming out.

The latest home loan figures released on Tuesday showed a 5.9 per cent fall in lending over the month of December and 19.8 per cent drop over the year – the worst result since the global financial crisis.

The accelerated plunge in home loans caused UBS analysts, who had expected a gentler fall in lending of 3 per cent over December, to downgrade their peak-to-trough forecast of home prices from a fall of 10 per cent to 14 per cent.

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