Inertia has hit the UK housing market as sellers await the outcome of the general election and stricter mortgage regulation suppresses buyer demand, according to property website Rightmove.

The number of homes registered for sale per estate agent fell to its lowest level for five years in December, with available stock 10pc lower than in the same month a year earlier.

At the beginning of 2014 each agent had 63 properties on its books, which climbed to 72 in July, before plummeting to 57 in the last month of the year.

While the lack of new listings pushed asking prices up 1.4pc from November to December, traditionally a quiet season for the housing market, analysts at Rightmove said vendors would need to work hard in 2015 to complete a sale.

“2015 will be the year of the selective mover,” said Miles Shipside, head of research at Rightmove. “With insufficient new building over the past few decades and a systemic change in the make-up of our current housing stock, buyers are dissatisfied with, and therefore dismissive of, some of what is up for sale.”

Although Rightmove experienced record levels of traffic to its site in the run-up to Christmas, with people either looking to move, monitoring new stock or simply showing curiosity in the market, data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders last week revealed that lending fell 7pc in the quarter to December.

A recent note from the stockbroker, Jefferies, warned that 2015 could be a slow year for the housing market, with prices falling in London. Rightmove’s Miles Shipside also confirmed that “the heat has gone out of the market” and he anticipates a "moderate reduction from the high transaction volumes seen in 2014."

Falling demand has fuelled fears that “gazundering” – the practice whereby buyers make a last-minute, lower offer on the day of exchange – could become more commonplace in 2015.