High street giant LSL Property Services says the number of transactions fell 20 per cent between the end of October and end of November - and for the first time in almost two years transaction volumes fell below the level recorded 12 months earlier.
Transactions in England, Wales and the UK had risen through the year but Dr Peter Williams, a housing analyst at Acadata - which conducts research for LSL - says the evidence now begins to suggest there is real braking' power being exercised, and not least by the lenders which has led to a reduction in transactions.
He says the effect is much more than just a hangover from MMR, introduced back in the spring.
Williams believes moves by the Financial Policy Committee to rein in the mortgage market and current consultation on new FPC tools' - for example, whether to put in place controls on Loan to Value and Debt to Income levels - has meant that some lenders are now curbing their issuing of mortgages even ahead of further anticipated restraints.
The new rules, and the overall scale and complexity of regulatory and government engagement around the mortgage market, were bound to have spill over effects on prices and transactions - the impact of which was hard to estimate in advance claims Williams.
He forecasts that this year will end with 925,000 transactions in England and Wales, based on the Land Registry definitions. This would represent an increase of 16 per cent over 2013 levels, with the major change in sales volumes took place in the first half of 2014.
It is likely to be the highest level of transactions in any year since 2007, when sales in England and Wales totalled 1,277,000.
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