The number of properties changing hands in Britain halved in September compared to a year earlier, as the fallout of the global credit crunch crippled mortgage issuance, turning the country's housing boom into bust.

Revenue and Customs said there were a seasonally adjusted 59,000 property sales in September, down 53 percent on the year and just below August's 60,000, even after the government raised the threshold at which homebuyers have to pay tax on purchases.

That compared to 126,000 in September last year, underlining the difficulties for estate agents and retail businesses that depend on the housing market for their survival.

House prices have fallen by more than 10 percent in the last year as once-easy mortgage lending dried up. Cash-strapped banks have become afraid of even lending to each other overnight, let alone to homebuyers in a falling market.

The government has said that in exchange for its recapitalisation of British banks, it wants to see mortgage lending return to more normal levels.

But analysts say it may be a while before the housing market recovers and prices still look set to fall sharply.

"More forward-looking indicators do not make any more pleasant reading, with latest mortgage approvals and lending data sinking to new long-term lows as housing market activity continues to be suffocated by very tight lending conditions and still-stretched affordability ratios," said Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight.