The total number of property sales which are completing in the UK fell once more during the month of August, according to the latest figures from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The report has shown that the level of activity for surveyors has dropped, with the average number of instructions falling to 12.7 per surveyor over a three month period. Some estate agents are now saying that they are making less than one sale each week and most are blaming the lack of liquidity within the banking sector for the problems, continuing to make it extremely hard for an individual to obtain finance to buy a house through a mortgage or homeowner loan.

There has also been a drop in the number of new enquiries from potentially new buyers, although this has only been slight. RICS also commented that in the previous two months, many people selling their homes had dropped the asking price to a more realistic level, given the market conditions, but rather than encouraging potential buyers to enter the market, many have been put off further, saying that they are waiting for prices to drop even lower before they think about applying for loan.

August is traditionally a quiet month for house sales, as the majority of the UK are thinking about holidays rather than buying houses, but it will be interesting to see how things alter in September, once the holidays are over and people start to think about moving into a new home for Christmas.

RICS also said that the level of repossessions on properties where borrowers had defaulted on their mortgages and homeowner loans were still below the numbers seen during the early nineties, admitting that the Governments rescue package may be showing some benefits, but at the same time they criticised other initiatives, such as the changes to stamp duty.

A spokesman for RICS said “The Government’s stamp duty policy will not be enough to kick start transactions and is more likely to assist buy to let investors with better access to finance than the first time buyers it was aimed at. More needs to be done to reinvigorate a market whose confidence has taken a severe knock.”