Government measures to boost movement in the housing market appear to be failing as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported more subdued activity.
The professional body said its residential market survey for February 2018 had found new buyer enquiries had fallen for the 11th month in succession.
Meanwhile the average inventory on estate agents books has reached a fresh low of just under 42 and the average time for a sale to complete has edged upwards to around 18 and a half weeks.
This is despite recent government action on housing, including the decision to abolish stamp duty for most first-time buyers in the Autumn Budget.
But Rics said the results of its survey showed this measure was "not having a significant impact on overall demand".
It said: "Alongside ongoing concerns about affordability in some areas of the country, part of the problem may lie in the lack of choice of property to purchase with the Rics New Instruction indicator falling once again, and by the biggest margin on a seasonally adjusted basis since July 2016.
"This has pushed the average inventory per branch on the books of agents who respond to the survey to a new record low of just under 42."
The results showed regional differences across the UK, with new buyer enquiries continuing to increase in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and Humberside and the North.
The most negative results were in the East Midlands, London and the South East with the trend in most other regions broadly flat.
Earlier this week the government published new proposals to encourage more house building by maximising the use of land, and encouraging councils to grant planning permission.
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, said: "The consultation announced earlier this week on housing delivery put the onus squarely on developers and planning departments to up their game to lift the supply pipeline, but the feedback to the latest Rics Residential Market Survey casts some doubt as to whether this will be sufficient to address the challenge.
"Significantly, the longer term national house price indicator has begun to creep upwards once again in recent months despite the current somewhat mixed climate and the private rent series also remains firm, in both cases pointing to increases of at least fifteen percent over the next five years."
damian.fantato@ft.com
