Falling transactions as last year drew to a close have been confirmed by the Land Registry, in line with estate agents’ experiences.

It says that from September to December there were 75,553 sales on average per month, down from 77,174 for the same period a year earlier.

In December itself there was an 11% fall in transactions, down on annual basis from 79,569 to 70,470.

The biggest falls were in the cheaper price bracket of £250,000 down to £50,000. The only price brackets where there were uplifts in sales were between £401,000 to £500,000, and £800,001 to £1m.

In London, transaction levels fell from 10,518 in December 2013 to 8,411 last December, with falls in every price range.

The Land Registry, which covers England and Wales, put the average sale price last month at £180,252 – up 0.5% on a monthly basis and up 6.5% compared with February last year.

However, large regional variations mask the average figures, with a monthly fall in prices of 1.7% in the north-west and an annual rise in London of just over 13%.

The biggest monthly riser was the north-east, where average house prices shot up 6.2% on a monthly basis and by 3.7% year on year, to reach £102,061, the lowest price in any of the regions.

That figure compares with London’s average house price of £463,469.