The pace of house price growth fell to the weakest levels seen in more than a year and-a-half in December, surveyors have reported.

There were huge variations across the country, with Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North West of England seeing the strongest growth in property values, while London was the only region where more surveyors reported prices falling than rising, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) found.

But RICS said that with so little choice of homes on the market for house hunters, it seems “implausible” that property prices are set to show much of a dip.

It said that if demand from potential buyers starts to pick up from its current sluggish levels, the increased competition for the relatively few properties on the market that this causes could rapidly result in an upswing in property prices.

Across the UK, net balance of 11% more surveyors observed house prices generally increasing rather than decreasing in December, marking the weakest pace of price growth that RICS has recorded since May 2013.

Housing market experts have predicted that the reforms to stamp duty which were unveiled by the Government in December could prompt more people to buy and sell homes in the coming months, as for the majority of people who pay stamp duty, the cost will be lower than it was under the old system. But people buying the most expensive properties, many of which are situated in London, will pay more under the new stamp duty system.