The data from the firm, which is a sentiment survey not an index that takes into account local market conditions with responses from over 5,000 agents and surveyors each month, also found that new buyer registrations and property listings were down over the month.
But the majority of respondents to the survey, some 79%, are optimistic about the prospects for the spring market primarily in relation to sales volumes rather than price growth.
Fewer postcodes, 16.2%, registered price falls in January compared to December 2012 when it was 27.4% and supply has contracted to its lowest level for three years on a rolling six month change basis.
The firm says that a lack of supply is acting as a support to pricing levels and is a key theme as we start 2013. The beginning of the year follows an above average contraction in supply over the second half of 2012.
The survey suggests that demand for housing remains sensitive to the wider economy and in turn, consumer confidence, but despite the slow start recorded in the January survey, the housing market looks to be in slightly better shape than at the start of the previous two years.
The survey results show a greater realism over pricing by sellers. Compared to this time last year, the percentage of asking price achieved indicator is up across all regions bar two; the East Midlands and North West.
Overall some 79% of survey respondents said they felt more optimistic about the forthcoming spring market than they did this time last year and 21% were more pessimistic.
‘Looking ahead the performance of the market in the coming months will be dependent upon sufficient new supply. Five years into the downturn sales of homes are still running at less than one million a year,’ says the Hometrack report.
‘The spring housing market will be a key test of whether UK households are willing to act upon a slowly improving sense of optimism,’ it adds.
