House prices inched back in February by just 0.1%, Nationwide reported this morning, to stand at £187,964.It takes annual house price inflation down to 5.7%.

The lender’s chief economist Robert Gardner said it was the sixth consecutive month in which annual house price inflation has moderated. He said housing market activity was “fairly subdued” with home ownership now at its lowest rate for almost 30 years.

The reverse in February was after rises in January, reported by both Nationwide and the Land Registry. According to the latter, house prices across England and Wales went up 1.3% in January on a monthly basis, to stand at £179,492.

In London prices slipped just 0.2% to an average of £458,283. Prices fell harder in Yorkshire & the Humber, by 1.5%, to stand at £119,974.

The region with the cheapest average house prices was the north-east where a monthly fall of 0.2% took prices to £97,974.

The Land Registry’s latest data on transactions, covering the period August to November last year, shows an average of 79,549 sales per month – up from 66,694 for the same period the year previously.

However, in November itself there were only 68,107 transactions – down 19% from November 2013, when there were 83,726 sales.

In London, sales in November slipped badly by 27% from 11,351 in November 2013 to 8,232 in the same month last year.

A separate report by Connells firm Sequence, using its own data, put UK house prices for January higher, at £212,968, with London house prices at £443,770.

Sequence believes that exchanges in January were 2% lower than in December and 11% down on January last year.