Developers are so desperate to make a profit in Kent's tumbling housing market they are renting out new homes.

As the Nationwide announced UK house prices have dipped for the 11th successive month, property firms are being forced to slash prices and think up novel initiatives to sell new homes.

Now tenants are moving into new Kent homes, built by developer Oakdene, that have failed to sell in the depressed market.

And one Kent buy-to-let investor said he had been offered parcels of new flats in the county at knock-down prices.

He had turned it down, as he considered the properties may not hold their value.

Oakdene Homes said it had decided to let out pretty mews cottages at the Swaylands Estate, Penshurst, complete with its listed rockery and tennis courts, after a "decline in the number of young professionals purchasing property".

Available for a monthly rent of between £1,800 and £2,230, half of the six cottages have now been let.

A similar initiative at the firm's New Aspects estate in Edenbridge has resulted in four of the houses being taken up by tenants, instead of the hoped-for buyers.

Monthly rental at Edenbridge costs between £725 and £1,100.

A spokesman said there had been "a lot of interest" in the rental scheme.

According to one media report, developer Barratt has given discounts of up to 43 per cent to investors prepared to buy five or more flats in East Yorkshire.

Barratt was unavailable for comment, but had earlier described such examples as "isolated".

The Nationwide said house prices dropped by 1.7 per cent in September, bringing the annual drop in prices to 12.4 per cent. The average UK home is now worth £20,000 less than a year ago.

Commenting on the new house price figures Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said: “House prices have now fallen for eleven consecutive months, but the monthly rate of fall has been almost unchanged in the last three months.

"The less volatile three-month-on-three month series has also barely changed for the last three months, after accelerating in the first half of the year. This may suggest the beginning of some stabilisation in the pace of house price falls."