Just 35,000 mortgages worth £5bn were taken out by people buying a home in September by figures taken from ‘Council of Mortgage Lenders’. This means a 15% drop in terms of both volume and value than in August and less than half of the level seen in September 2007.The number of homes changing hands hit a new record low in October, so states the ‘Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’.

Average property sales fell to just 10.9 per estate agent during the three months to the end of October, down from 11.5 in September. These figures are the lowest level recorded by RICS since it launched the survey in 1978.

“Housing market conditions remain challenging in the face of the significant pressures on householders’ incomes and the reduction in the availability of mortgage finance since last summer.”