Don’t panic! The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors may have painted a grim picture of the housing market, but Chris Wood, vice president of the National Association of Estate Agents, is more sanguine.

“The RICS report illustrates that an aggregated national snapshot of the market can only tell part of any story. In order to gain a clearer picture there is a need to look regionally. We are already aware from our own members that house prices are being affected differently throughout the country so to see that the report showed an aggregate drop in house price comes as no surprise.

“However, there is a real need to keep this in perspective. The picture is mixed across the country and some areas will be more affected than others, so people really need to look to their local markets to get a true picture.”

A key issue in the report was waning consumer confidence and consumers and the industry needed assistance from the Government and other bodies to relieve restrictions on the mortgage market. If the shackles could be removed the flow of buyers would resume, he said.

“Finally, there is no denying that the credit crunch has affected confidence in the market – but it is still important to remember that the underlying factors that support the property market remain: low unemployment, historically low interest rates and a pent-up demand for houses.

“Therefore, rather than a dramatic fall that some doom and gloom merchants are predicting, it shows we are looking at a return to a more steady market rather than the fantastic price hikes we have seen in the previous 10 years.”