Neither sales instructions nor new buyer enquiries are showing any signs of a meaningful rise according to the company, while selling times remain higher than normal in every region.
The data suggests that confidence in the housing market remains fragile.
Both buyer enquiries and sales instructions also remained subdued. With the number of active sellers and buyers in broad balance, Capital Economics suggested there were few reasons to suspect that a recovery or a fresh collapse in prices is imminent.
Both the Halifax and Nationwide house price indices fell last month. The fall on the Nationwide house price index was the largest for two years.
However on a longer term perspective the most widely quoted indices show that national average house prices have been broadly flat for the past two years.
Capital Economics concluded: “Given that the stamp duty-driven boost to activity seems to have had little material impact on house prices, its reversal is not obviously a cause for concern. But the same cannot be said of the latest credit conditions survey which showed that mortgage credit scoring criteria are tightening and application approval rates are falling.”
