Its figures showed that house sales will total an expected 840,000 by the end of 2011, almost 50% lower than 2007. This equates to the average home changing hands every 26 years.
Nevertheless, Hometrack said that the low turnover and increasing realism over pricing among sellers looking to move before Christmas have supported headline housing figures.
Hometrack’s report revealed that, despite low consumer confidence and house prices falling for the 16th month in a row in November, by 0.2%, prices are down a relatively modest 2.3% year-on-year.
Yet, new property listings failed to grow over the last quarter, with listings in November down 0.8%.
Demand also fell for the fourth consecutive month, down 2.2% in November, and will likely to drop further in the run up to the Christmas, meaning house price falls are likely to accelerate in the months to come.
Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said: “The economic and financial backdrop to the UK housing market remains far from positive, but over the last three years the sector has adapted to an environment where low turnover and constrained finance have become the norm.
“A mixture of realism over pricing on the part of sellers and low turnover are supporting the headline housing indicators.
“Indeed 2011, looks set to register the lowest level of housing turnover for 40 years – a trend which Hometrack expects to continue into 2012.”
The average time on the market rose slightly in November to 9.9 weeks compared to 9.8 weeks the previous month, while the proportion of the asking price achieved remained unchanged at 92.5%.
Across the country, 32% of postcodes registered average house price falls, with the greatest pressure being felt in the South West, East Midlands, Wales and North West where prices fell by over 0.3% over November.
London prices remained unchanged for the second month in the row, but Donnell warned: “Looking ahead it is unlikely that London will escape the impact of the continued turmoil in the financial markets. When prices start to fall in the capital so the scale of headline price falls will start to accelerate.”
