Jeremy Leaf, a north London estate agent, said prices softening was down to a better choice of properties on the market and “hard bargaining” rather than to a weakening market.
The former chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors added: “Mortgage approvals show expectations that interest rates will fall are prevailing over worries about the economy.
“We need to bear in mind too that the Halifax numbers do not include cash buyers which make up over a third of purchases and is a sector of the market which is especially active at present.”
Since November, experts said ten weeks of recovery in the UK’s housing market have been followed by “ten weeks of drift”.
Tom Bill, a research head at estate agent Knight Frank, added: “Mixed signals around inflation, rising supply and a wave of people rolling off sub-2pc fixed-rate mortgages agreed in early 2022 mean the direction of travel for the property market is currently sideways.
“Once a rate cut appears firmly on the horizon and more mortgage rates start with a three, we expect stronger demand to push UK prices 3pc higher this year.”
In February, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to maintain the Bank Rate at 5.25pc.
Markets expect the Bank Rate to start coming down from August, having previously bet on June. While headline inflation has fallen, service-sector and wage inflation – two measures Bank Rate cuts are based on – remain elevated.