The National Housing Federation is optimistic about the future and points out that in some parts of the country the property market is not in a downward spiral.
Analysts believe that far from falling off a cliff, house prices could actually rise by a quarter by 2013. Its report predicts that price falls will continue in 2009, recover in 2010 and then rapidly increase from 2011.
'Our report shows that despite concerns about the current housing market downturn, house prices will increase substantially over the mid to long term,' said Federation Chief Executive David Orr.
'Demand for housing is going up, while the supply of new homes is going down. This means that as soon as the economic outlook improves house prices will resume their previous upward trajectory.
'People are living longer, they're delaying getting married and they're more likely to get divorced so we now have more households than ever,' he added.
Indeed in some areas the property market is proving resilient. Prices have fallen in Brighton, for example, but they are now at a level where the property market is moving.
'I don't see them coming down too much more. I think that Brighton will continue to be a bit of an economic bubble in that it's an attractive place to live and whatever happens elsewhere, downsizing and downshifting Londoners will move to Brighton. This will keep property prices high, if not stable at the least,' said Charlie Snell, director of Brighton and Hove Family Homes
According to research from the Halifax, some 67% of market towns in England attract higher average property prices than neighbouring conurbations.
Leading the pack is Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, which has the largest price premium of any town in the UK, with houses trading at a premium of 144% to the average house price in the county.
Other towns doing well include Ringwood in Hampshire, Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, and Cranbrook in Kent.
The south-east is the dominant region in the UK when it comes to property price growth, according to Knight Frank. The traditionally affluent home county locations such as south Buckinghamshire and the Wealden area in east Sussex are doing well as are seaside areas like Shoreham-by-Sea and Hastings.
