Property prices provided more gloomy news for homeowners this morning with government figures showing a slide of 1.6 per cent in February.

The annual rate of house price growth slowed to 6.7 per cent, the lowest rate in 19 months, down from 8 per cent in January, figures from the Department of Communities and Local Government show.

This came as a record number of surveyors reported that house prices fell last month. Nearly 79 per cent more surveyors said prices fell rather than increased in March — the highest proportion since the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors started its poll in 1978.

The new data adds to the myriad of worrying news for homeowners. Last week many mortgage lenders increased their interest rates despite a quarter point rate cut by the Bank of England, leaving some homeowners facing soaring mortgage bills as the value of their home falls.

Analysts are also forecasting that house prices will drop by between 5 and 10 per cent this year. However one economist sounded alarm that more severe falls could be imminent as confidence in the housing market starts to falter.

Howard Archer, of Global Insight, an economic consultancy, said: "The likelihood of a sharp house price correction will also rise if both sellers and buyers start expecting it to happen, which is becoming a very real threat given all the current high profile bad news about mortgages and the housing market."

The DCLG figures show that the average price of properties sold during February was £217,737, down from £221,278 in the previous month.

Flat-owners were the worst hit by the falls in prices. The value of their property fell by an average of 2.9 per cent during February. This will come as a blow to first-time buyers as flats are the most popular choice of property for those climbing on to the property ladder.

Detached and semi-detached houses fell by 1.5 per cent, while terraced houses slipped in value by 1.1 per cent. Bungalows held the value the best, falling in price by just 0.6 per cent.

The average cost of a home bought by a first-time buyer fell by 1.5 per cent during February to stand at £160,338, while former owner-occupiers paid 1.7 per cent less at £251,797.

Prices in Wales and Northern Ireland slipped faster than elsewhere in the country. Annual price inflation in Wales fell to 3.8 per cent in February, down from 7.4 per cent in January while prices in Northern Ireland slipped to 3.7 per cent, down from 8.4 per cent in December.

The annual increase in prices in England slowed to 6.6 per cent in February, from 7.9 per cent in January, while in Scotland, the pace of growth slowed only fractionally, from 9.8 per cent to 9.7 per cent.

The data from the Department of Communities and Local Government is released much later than other surveys, but is based on the monthly survey of 50 mortgage lenders, making it much bigger than the surveys from Halifax or Nationwide. It's data is also based on mortgage completed, rather than mortgage offers.