The number of people both selling and buying homes continued to slow in September, according to new figures released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

Some 14.6 per cent more chartered surveyors reported that they had noted a fall in house prices than the number who said they had seen a rise, while 51 per cent more saying they had seen a decrease in the number of new buyers approaching them.

Sellers appeared to be cautious about putting their home on the market, with Rics claiming that the number of new instructions to sell property fell for the fourth month in a row.

Jeremy Leaf, a spokesman for RICS, said: "The combination of rising interest rates, the introduction of HIPs and volatility in the financial markets resulting in tightening of lending criteria, has certainly affected the confidence of buyers and sellers."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, economist Roger Bootle, predicted that while the market would not crash, it would see a decline.

"In the housing market, prices dribble lower rather than plunge. That is what I suspect may happen next year and for a good while to come," he said.