According to a survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) the fall in the property market is steeping further.

During September the average estate agents sold less than one property each per week.

The amount of properties sold across the UK was was 52 percent lower than in September last year, the lowest since the Rics survey began in 1978.

The region with fewest sales per estate agent was London, with an average of just eight sales over the last three months.

Nationwide reported that 91% of its estate agents saw house prices fall over the preceding three months.

Jeremy Leaf, a spokesman for Rics said "As it stands, only those with significant finances are in a position to access the market"
"The housing market continues to hold its breath and unless mortgage liquidity improves, the market is likely to remain a dormant beast for some time to come."

Some of the major lenders such as the Nationwide and the Halifax have reported a 12% fall in house prices over the last year.

Despite these negative figures, Rics had some encouragement from a small increase in the amount of new enquiries made by would-be buyers, which it said was a lead indicator of activity.

The amount of surveyors reporting an increase in enquiries was the highest in 16 months, though this figure was still lower than those reporting a fall.

"The market has still yet to experience significant numbers of forced sales but surveyors are surprisingly optimistic that sales will increase over the next three months," said Rics.

It is thought that one of the main influential factors for the increase in enquiries is the introduction of the governments higher stamp duty threshold, brought in at the beginning of September.

Now that the government has set up a scheme to make cash available to UK banks it should provide some much needed stability, which should take some pressure off the lending markets, helping those requiring mortgages to do so more easily.