Transactions dipped by 0.1% in December compared to the same month in 2016, according to HMRC.
Sales fell by 3.9% month on month – with the last month of the year typically quiet due to Christmas.
There were 99,100 residential and 10,390 non-residential sales last month, the data provisionally showed.
Brian Murphy, head of lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau said: “It’s reasonable to suggest that, now the scores are on the doors for last year, we can see that the UK property market has held steady against the prevailing factors of the slow-down in the buy-to-let market, the first interest rate rise in a decade and the ongoing Brexit negotiations, none of which seem to have dented overall consumer confidence in bricks and mortar.”
Agents reported the property market has lifted since the start of 2018.
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, said: “Transaction numbers are how we, as estate agents, best judge the strength or weakness of the housing market, rather than the ups and downs of monthly price movements.
“These figures bear out what we have been seeing – steady, not rising or falling activity, particularly in the lead-up to the traditionally quieter Christmas period.
“Certainly the market has perked-up a bit in January, with evidence of some pent-up demand from cautious buyers emerging, although we will have to wait and see how this translates into sales in the next month or two.”
