The pace of house price falls may be steadying as the end of the year approaches, according to surveyors.
A net balance of 63% of property professionals reported house prices falling rather than increasing in October, edging down from a balance of 67% in September, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.
Its report said the latest house price reading "suggests the pace of decline, from a national perspective, has levelled off in recent weeks.
Nonetheless, the house price metric remains deeply negative across most parts of the UK, even if the latest readings have moved off the lows hit over the past couple of months in the majority of cases".
RICS senior economist, Tarrant Parsons, said: "Plenty of caution remains evident with respect to both buyer and seller activity across the UK housing market, albeit the latest survey feedback points to a slightly less negative picture than that reported over the previous few months."
“Although base interest rates have now been kept on hold at each of the past two MPC meetings, the Bank of England was keen to emphasise that monetary policy is set to stay at a restrictive setting for quite some time yet."
“As such, mortgage affordability will remain stretched over the near-term, leaving little prospect of a strong rebound in residential sales volumes, even if expectations have now moved away from cyclical lows”.