It means the property market has been in a three-year slump, with sales roughly half the levels recorded in the run up to the banking crisis in 2007.

Sales have been depressed by a combination of mortgage rationing by lenders, and rising unemployment.

The record low was in 2009, when just 848,000 homes were sold, the fewest since modern records began in 1978.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has predicted that total lending, to both buyers and people remortgaging, will fall again this year, which suggests that sales may fall further.

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