House prices are falling to their worst levels in 30 years with a record number of chartered surveyors reporting a drop in the cost of property during March.

A report published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed 78.5% more surveyors said the value of property had dropped, than those who reported a rise.

The figure is considerably higher than the 65.7% more surveyors who reported price falls in February, which itself surpassed the historic high set in June 1990 to be the worst figure since the survey began in 1978.

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RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: "The slowdown in prices is directly attributable to a lack of available finance which has hit demand. However, until new supply increases dramatically a significant crash remains unlikely."

Surveyors reported that prices fell at a faster pace than during the previous month in all regions of England and Wales, except for Yorkshire and Humberside.

Scotland remains the only area of the UK that is still seeing house price rises, with just 4% more surveyors saying values are still going up there than those who think they are falling, compared with 10% more in February. But the group stressed that a shortage of homes being put up for sale should prevent a 1990s-style house price crash.

RICS said the fact that recent interest rate cuts were not being passed on to new borrowers suggested demand was unlikely to improve soon.

(CD/JM)