Both house sales and mortgage lending were weak in April, as nerves jangled in the run-up to what looked like an uncertain election result.

Transactions volumes fell back in April, both seasonally adjusted and non-adjusted, and on both the previous month and previous year.

Sales volumes of residential properties were 3.4% lower than March on a seasonally adjusted basis, and 5.6% lower than April last year.

On a non-adjusted basis – ie, the actuals – there were an estimated 87,900 transactions in April, down from 92,980 in March, and down from 94,350 in April last year.

The Land Registry has also produced its figure for the number of total transactions last year – 1,218,670.

The figure was a solid improvement on the year before (1,073,560) and a long way up from the 885,770 recorded in 2010.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, lending was also down on both the previous month and year by 1% and 4% respectively.