The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 1.8% in May from 3.7% in April taking the average house price in the UK to £218,902.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “In the opening months of 2020, before the pandemic struck the UK, the housing market had been steadily gathering momentum.

“Activity levels and price growth were edging up thanks to continued robust labour market conditions, low borrowing costs and a more stable political backdrop following the general election.

“But housing market activity has slowed sharply as a result of the measures implemented to control the spread of the virus. Indeed, data from HMRC showed that residential property transactions were down 53% in April compared with the same month in 2019.

“Mortgage activity has also declined sharply. Nevertheless, our ability to generate the house price index has not been impacted to date, as sample sizes have remained sufficiently large (and representative) to generate robust results.

“Low transaction levels may still make gauging price trends difficult in the coming months – especially for regional indices, which by their nature have lower sample sizes.”

Commenting on the Nationwide’s house price index, James Forrester, managing director of Birmingham estate agent Barrows and Forrester, said: “From what is likely to be very scant transactional data it’s impossible to know if this is the beginning of a market decline or a lockdown inspired blip, but many market indicators point to the latter.

“Yes, this is the largest monthly fall in over a decade and many will seize on this opportunity to prophesize the end of the market, however, this simply isn’t what we’re seeing on the ground.

“The market all but stopped dead overnight when the lockdown was imposed and so a -1.7% could arguably be viewed as a positive, all things considered. Since it’s reopened, estate agents and portal sites are reporting high levels of traffic, enquiries, viewings and sales. Activity that bodes very well for the future.”