UK house prices are set for a "far more subdued" period of growth in the coming months following the flurry of activity seen earlier this year, experts predict.
Two reports published today in the UK are the latest in a string of recent evidence which points to the market pausing for breath.
The reports show that there are fewer house hunters now on the ground, while a higher share of mortgage applications are being turned down.
Speculation over the prospect of interest rates rising is also said to be making many people think twice about the prices being demanded by sellers.
New figures released by Halifax showed that the pace of house price increases is slowing. UK property values lifted by 0.6% month-on-month in September and by 9.6% year-on-year to reach £187,188 on average.
The annual increase in house prices had hit 10.2% in July, which was the strongest year-on-year growth seen in seven years.
Halifax said that July's double-digit figure may have been the peak for annual house price inflation and that more moderate growth now looks likely going into 2015.
The findings came as a report from property website Zoopla found that home owner confidence in the continued growth of UK house prices has fallen to its lowest levels in 15 months.
A survey of over 6,700 home owners for Zoopla found that 88% of people expect property prices to increase in their area in the next six months, falling from 92% three months ago and marking the lowest proportion since July 2013.
A lack of supply of homes to choose from as a flurry of buyers entered the market at the start of 2014 amid improving economic confidence and a widened access to mortgage deals had been one of the factors driving up prices in the UK.
A string of studies reported house prices hitting record highs over the summer, with much of these increases being driven by London.
Toughened mortgage lending rules were introduced in April under the Mortgage Market Review, which force lenders to ask people applying for a home loan more detailed questions about their spending habits, to make sure that they can truly afford their mortgage.
Findings from a Bank of England survey of lenders released this week indicated that mortgages have become harder to get in the last three months. The bank said that the proportion of home loans being approved has fallen as lenders have tightened their credit scoring criteria.
Lenders also told the bank they have become less willing to lend to people with deposits of less than 10%.
But UK lenders expect both the demand for and availability of mortgages to pick back up in the coming months and they are also planning to offer strongly competitive mortgage deals to pull in business so that they can meet end-of-year targets.
Forecasts have pointed to the pace of house price growth cooling off as the market heads into next year.
The Bank of England recently said it expects the rate of growth to slow to around 0.5% a month by the first three months of 2015.
The slowdown would mean that house prices would increase by around 6% across next year, which would be a significant drop-off from the double-digit annual increases seen in the summer of 2014.
However, some experts have gone as far as to predict that the slowing price growth will lead to house prices falling across 2015.
On Monday, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) predicted that prices will see a slight 0.8% year-on-year decrease over 2015, after growing by 7.8% over 2014. This predicted dip will mark a period of readjustment after the market got "ahead of itself" this year, Cebr said.
Cebr said some prospective buyers are also likely be "startled" by the rise in interest rates which is expected by forecasters in 2015 as the Bank of England base rate moves off its historic 0.5% low, making the cost of borrowing more expensive.
The Cebr report, which also forecasts that house prices will start climbing again in 2016, said people should not be "too worried" about a modest fall in values next year and emphasised that it was not anticipating a crash.
