Rightmove's latest analysis is very downbeat over the property market's future prospects.
House prices fell a further one percent last month, as the mortgage market continues its slump.
New data from Rightmove, a property website, found that the value of the average home now stands at 3.3 percent lower than it did a year ago. This is markedly more conservative result than those shown by similar surveys from lenders HBOS and Nationwide, which have both tracked annual price falls exceeding ten percent.
Moreover, Rightmove's survey also shows a smaller drop from August-September than it did for July-August (2.3 percent). Despite this apparent tapering-off, however, the site's commercial director Miles Shipside remained very downbeat about the property market's prospects.
He commented: Miles Shipside, Rightmove's commercial director, said: "The housing market is on its knees and will remain so until financial institutions address the disastrous state of the mortgage-funding markets. We are now seeing the lowest level of new sellers for years."
He added: "There's a baseline level of activity from those that have to sell, but beyond that, discretionary sellers are increasingly scarce."
Rightmove remains critical of the efficacy of the government's latest housing market stimulus package, which saw, among other measures, stamp duty for home sales worth £175,000 or less suspended for a year. While admitting that the change could benefit first-time buyers, Mr Shipside said that the plan was merely "tinkering at the edges" of the system.
