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The LMS Quarterly Market Efficiency Monitor found that during the first quarter of 2008, on average it took 55 days for the sale of a property to be completed. This compares to 56 days for the same period last year.

The greatest decrease occurred during March whereby it took 52 days for the deal to move from notification of sale to exchange, in comparison to 54 days in March 2007.

On a regional basis, properties that sold in the North of England experienced the greatest decrease year-on-year, now taking just 47 days for completion during the first quarter of 2008, compared to 51 days in Q1 2007.

However, homes in Yorkshire saw the number of days it took to sell a property increase by three days, from 50 in Q1 2007 to 53 in Q1 2008.

Dominic Toller, director of marketing and new business at, LMS, which provides outsourced conveyancing, remortgage, survey and valuation services, said: "Despite the housing turmoil that we’ve seen over the past three months, the average number of days it takes to sell a residential property has decreased slightly.

"When this figure is looked at in more detail, we can see a marked decrease between January (56 days) and March (52 days), showing the effect that Home Information Packs (HIPs) are having on the industry.”

"However, the length of time it takes for a property to sell is still too high. One of the key reasons being that in a slowing market you tend to find property chains have difficulty in settling, clearly making a big difference to the number of days taken to sell a property."

On a gloomier note, there has, however, been an increase in the number of cancellations seen across the UK, with cancellations occurring during Q1 at 17 per cent, compared to 13 per cent for the same period last year.

Toller said: "Given the turbulence of the market and the difficulties buyers are having getting access to finance, it is little wonder that the number of cancellations has increased.

"As the effects of the credit crunch further embed themselves in the market, we anticipate that the next quarter’s figures will be up considerably.  However, without the introduction of HIPs last year, we could have expected this figure to be far worse."