Last month saw house prices drop by a figure of 1.3 per cent, compared to November 2010, according to Halifax.

December saw an average price of £162,435 recorded, marking an annual change of -1.6 per cent.

Housing economist at the company Martin Ellis commented that a quarterly drop in prices was also noted by Halifax last month.

He stated: "Prices in the final three months of 2010 were 0.9 per cent lower than in the previous quarter."

Mr Ellis added: "This rate of decline is significantly less than the quarterly falls of five to six per cent during the second half of 2008."

At the end of 2010, separate Halifax figures published in the company's County House Price Survey also revealed that Conwy was the county where house prices went up by the largest amount over the year, with a 13 per cent average rate of growth being seen.