Asking-price growth has hit its lowest level for January since 2012, Rightmove data out today shows.

Its listing figures reveal that the average new asking price of properties is up 0.4% annually to £298,734, the lowest monthly rise for this time of year since January 2012.

It does however reverse a trend of two consecutive months of falls in annual price growth.

The latest figures represent properties on sale from December 9 to January 12, so aren’t necessarily reflective of the actual start of the year.

However, separate Rightmove data on the first two weeks of January from the portal shows that the number of properties coming to market is down 2.1% compared with the same time a year ago.

While the overall average drop means that the supply of new property is broadly in line with last January, in some regions there are significant falls.

There was an 11% drop in Wales and a 10% drop in listings in London, largely offset by rises elsewhere , Rightmove said.

The full listings growth data from Rightmove (below) shows the biggest drops, while there was a 3.3% increase in properties coming to market in the east midlands.

Despite the supply trends, traffic to the site was up 5% to more than 4.5m visits each day.

Looking back at last month, Rightmove’s data shows that average time to sell has hit 70 days, up from 65 in November and from 67 in December 2017.

Average stock per agent in December was 46, down from 50 in November but up from 43 in the same month in 2017.

Miles Shipside, director and housing market analyst for Rightmove, said: “As we move from the old year into the new, the headline summary is that the Christmas slowdown came early and the hangover lasted a few days longer into the New Year than usual.

“Agents report that activity is now picking up, though when you dig underneath the national averages, the first snapshot of 2019 shows a somewhat patchy and variable picture depending on where you are in the country.”

While new listings have slipped on Rightmove, separate data also out today shows that transactions were down 2.4% last year on the year before.

Your Move is predicting a decline in sales across the market for 2018, which it said was exacerbated by a monthly drop of 8.1% between November and December to 78,250 transactions.

Its analysis – based on Land Registry data – also found that annual house price growth last month had slowed to its lowest level since April 2012 at 0.6% to £306,647, pointing out that with inflation at 2.2% this means prices are falling in real terms.

Oliver Blake, managing director of Your Move, said: “Due to current political and economic unrest it is understandable why buyers and sellers may be taking a ‘wait and see’ approach to the property market.”