House prices in Britain fell for the first time in almost 18 months in April, a survey by property website Hometrack has said.
Hometrack said its national survey showed house prices fell a non-seasonally adjusted 0.1 per cent in April, with the slowdown being pronounced in the southeast.
"After eleven months of steady decline in house price inflation since May's peak of 2.6 per cent, this is the first clear sign that the property boom is over," said the report.
"This is presently very little excess demand to lift prices over the next few months," it said.
According to the survey, it took around five weeks on average to sell a home now compared with around 2.8 weeks during the height of the boom in May last year.
Mortgage lenders' prudent policy of restricting loans to less than four times the borrower's income is also limiting the size of mortgage, and hence the price of homes people can afford.
The housing market boom in Britain has been fuelled by historically low borrowing costs and its resilient labour market.
However, an economic slowdown which has taken away jobs from thousands of financial professionals appears to have finally taken its toll on demand for properties.