Kent homeowners are putting house moves on hold - as sales in the region plummet to their lowest in 30 years and trail even behind poor national figures.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found some estate agents in the south east are now selling less than one home per week, the lowest rate since records began in 1978.

It found the average number of transactions per estate agent over the last three months in the south-east is now just 11. This is slightly lower than the figure nationally, which stands at 12.7 transactions over the three months.

Chartered surveyor David Parry, of Cluttons, Maidstone, in his contribution to the RICS report said of the local market: "There is very little confidence in the market and the few agreed sales are all vulnerable to collapse.

"The outlook appears grim but increasing realism amongst vendors may help improve sales rates in the future."

Paul Hogarth, partner at estate agency Knight Frank, which has branches in Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells said: "We are experiencing the downturn that other people are seeing and it can be depressing to see people having difficulty with the sale of properties.

"Figures are definitely down, although I couldn’t comment on the numbers. Normally what moves a market is that people have a reason for moving, new baby, work commitments and so on.

"What we are finding is that unless there is really a strong urge to move, people are not moving. I would say that in this market people feel there is a limited urgency to move."

He said the picture was not all negative, however.

"There does seem to be some appetite for some new build homes," he said.

"New build developers are very good at creating purchase plans, ways of helping people move. Part exchange is very useful and remains popular.

"As a profession, we are still busy, valuing schemes and helping to value properties."

RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf , releasing the survey, said: "A lack of mortgage liquidity is the key issue which is keeping the housing market from showing any real sign of recovery. While money is scarce, many will continue to be denied the next step on the property ladder.

"The government’s stamp duty policy will not be enough kick start transactions and is more likely to assist buy-to-let investors with better access to finance than the first-time buyers it was aimed at.

"More needs to be done to re-invigorate a market whose confidence has taken a severe knock.

"In the absence of much transactional activity many home owners are being forced to rent their properties while they wait for lending criteria to be loosened and demand to pick up."