House sales drop 19pc

Meanwhile house prices rose 0.1% since May with the average house price in England and Wales now £161,777.

The South East topped the table of regional applications with 222,280 in June while over 50,000 residential property sale prices in England and Wales were lodged for registration in June.

The June data from Land Registry's index shows an annual price increase of 0.9% which takes the average property value in England and Wales to £161,777.

London saw the highest value increase over the past 12 months with a movement of 6.3%.

Wales experienced the greatest monthly rise with an increase of 2.5% while Yorkshire & The Humber experienced the greatest annual price fall with a decrease of 1.9%.

Yorkshire & The Humber also saw the most significant monthly price fall with a decrease of 0.3%.

The number of properties sold in England and Wales for over £1m in April 2012 decreased by 43% to 468 from 825 in April 2011.

Peter Rollings, chief executive of estate agent Marsh & Parsons, said: “A shortage of supply may be helping prop up prices nationwide but the true thermometer for the national housing market is the number of sales taking place.

“By this measure the national market is far from fighting fit - even allowing for the disruptive end of the stamp duty rush.”

Rollings said tight lending criteria continues to thwart underlying buyer demand at a time when consumer spending power is already under pressure.

And he added: “If lenders’ concerns about the ongoing eurozone crisis trump the impact of the funding for lending scheme lending to new borrowers is unlikely to recover significantly and credit worthy would-be buyers will continue to save for higher deposits and pay down debts rather than move.”

Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics, said: “House prices rose far more slowly in the second quarter than in the first. Thus the upswing in the Land Registry measure of house price inflation is likely to be reversed before long.”