Some areas of the country saw one in four properties fail to sell for the whole of this year, according to a property search engine.
This year saw the property market "stagnate" as a variety of factors hit it, the chief executive of a property search engine has claimed.
Daniel Lee, from Globtrix, said that two main factors were involved in 2008 being "a terrible year for the property market". Firstly, the refusal of the major banks to provide mortgage lending and secondly unrealistic asking prices from sellers.
This has led to a situation where some areas of the UK have seen one in four properties fail to sell throughout the year, according to Globtrix figures. Rochdale in Lancashire has seen 26 percent of its properties on the market not find a buyer since the start of 2008, while Aberystwyth in Wales recorded 23 percent.
The statistics are in keeping with a generally gloomy picture of the UK's housing market which has been painted by most analysts. House prices have continued to fall throughout the year, with a recent estimate by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors suggesting they will fall to three quarters of their high in summer 2007.
However, Mr Lee was more optimistic about the future. He said: "Fortunately, in the past few weeks there have been signs that sellers are starting to accept that they need to drop their prices if they are going to attract buyers."
