UK property market down with a bounce says BNP Paribas Real Estate

With an overwhelming amount of in-depth research, Steventon concluded that the next five years will be dominated by a lack of demand and the turning point in the market's fortunes will be very difficult to predict.

He said: "The market fell faster and harder than in the 1990s. Our analysts in Paris had expected a slight upturn in the economy in Q2 of this year, but sadly that didn't happen," however, he added: "we may now be approaching a trough in the current cycle."

The research specialist believes that rather unusually, that consumers will not drive the recovery from recession this time round, instead there will be a bigger dependency on the global economy. While the future of the financial sector is still being debated, Steventon believes financial markets could become freer with cheaper debt and better returns for equity. However, it will be a slow recovery.

"We won't be back to where we were until 2011 if we accept the Bank of England's figures," said Steventon, "while Experian's figures suggest 2013."