A winter sale in which house prices are slashed by up to eight per cent is needed to get the market moving again, according to research published today.

Asking prices are down a meagre 0.3 per cent, or less than £600, but this is not enough to tempt back buyers, the Rightmove Index warned.

Estate agents are set to enter 2005 with stock levels over a third higher than a year ago.

Prices have slipped from an average of £190,329 in November to £189,733 in December, compared with a decline of 1.7 per cent in October to November.