According to a recent report the average price of property in the UK fell in June following four months of increases. The data comes from the property website Right Move, which claims that in the weeks leading to 13th June property prices fell by 0.4 percent, which took the average property price to £226,436.

However, asking prices are said to have remained around 6 percent higher than they were in January of this year, which meant that they were only 5.5 percent lower than the same period last year.

June also saw a 10 percent increase in the number of homeowners selling their properties, and with an increase in the number of people interested in purchasing property after a very turbulent period with low sales levels many officials predicted that the housing market was getting back onto its feet. However, officials from Right Move have warned that there are still problems with people being able to get mortgages in the current climate, and this could seriously affect any recovery to the housing market.

One industry official said: ‘It’s a mistake to confuse the upturn in enquiries and sales with a return to a more normal market. While conditions are much improved on the darkest days of last year, we are now starting to see some big distortions and wild swings due to the combined effects of recession and restricted mortgage availability.’

The company also said that despite the increase in sellers for the month of June there was still a severe shortage of new properties for sale, with the problem affecting some areas more than others.

One official added: ‘Given lenders’ tight lending criteria and their raising of fixed rates, the pool of potential first-time buyers who can mop up this less saleable stock, which includes repossessions, is reducing further.’

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