There will have been 1.225m house sales in the UK this year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has predicted.

Its forecast, published yesterday, is slightly down on the 1.230m it predicted six months ago.

The CML says its lower forecast comes after more muted housing activity.

The CML is predicting 1.18m housing transactions for both next year and 2016.

The figures compare with a low of just 858,000 house sales in 2009 and a high of 1.67m sales in 2006.

The CML thinks that cash transactions will edge back to one-third of sales after climbing to almost 36% last year.

Meanwhile, the NAEA has predicted that next year there will be slower house price growth in London and the south-east, but with other areas where the market has been slow playing catch-up.

ARLA is forecasting rental inflation of around 2-3%.

It is also warning that if Labour gets into power and introduces three-year tenancy agreements, making it more difficult to evict tenants, landlords could pull out of the market.