The number of property sale registrations lodged with the Land Registry was already down last month before the coronavirus even struck.

Land Registry Price Paid data shows the number of registrations fell 20% to 72,754 between January and February.

The figure is also down 5.13% annually.

The data is provisional and has a delay of two weeks to two months so covers some of the General Election period when the market is believed to have paused to await the outcome.

Of the sales received for registration, 17,049 took place in February of which 315 were of residential properties in England for more than £1m.

The most expensive residential property sold was in Kensington and Chelsea for £13m and the cheapest was in Ferryhill, County Durham for £17,600.