Aftershocks from the collapse of the U.S. subprime-mortgage market this year are taking an increasing toll on companies worldwide.
In the U.K., banks' reluctance to make money available to each other following the subprime debacle helps explain why home prices fell 3.2 percent this month. This decline is the steepest since Rightmove Plc, Britain's most popular online real-estate site, started providing figures in 2002.
``Buyers face limited availability of mortgages at attractive rates'' because lenders depend largely on ``log- jammed'' money markets for funding, the Milton Keynes, England- based company wrote in a report yesterday.
U.K. homebuilding shares declined in response to the data. Their second-half losses are now more in line with those of their U.S. counterparts. The average drop for the half among six builders in the FTSE 350 Index is 27 percent, just one percentage point from the comparable figure for the industry's half-dozen worst performers in Standard & Poor's benchmark U.S. indexes.
Australia's Centro Properties Group fell even harder yesterday after disclosing that ``tightened credit conditions'' prevented the company from reaching agreement with its banks to refinance A$1.3 billion ($1.12 billion) of debt maturing in May.
Centro, which suspended dividends and said asset sales may be needed to pay down debt, plummeted 76 percent. Centro Retail Group, a real-estate investment trust that the Melbourne-based company manages, tumbled 40 percent.
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