House sales and buyer enquiries "flatlined" in March as the pre-election housing market slowdown continues.
But property prices nevertheless rose due to supply constraints, as the number of homes coming onto the market fell for the second consecutive month, according to the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey.
The imbalance between supply and demand led to 21% more surveyors reporting a rise in house prices in March, up from 15% in February.
And 15% more surveyors expecting prices to increase over the next three months compared with 10% in February.
Both these figures are significantly lower than in March 2014, however.
Nationally, Northern Ireland continues to outperform the rest of the UK with the strongest house price growth in March and the highest price expectations over the next three months.
Across much of the rest of the UK, particularly in Wales and Scotland, price gains over the next three months are expected to be much more moderate.
In London, a lack of prospective buyers saw enquiries and the number of agreed sales both fall for the 11th consecutive month and 24% more surveyors reported a decline in the number of new properties coming onto the market for sale.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: "The boost that was given to the housing market by the Help to Buy scheme has begun to dissipate and activity levels have slipped back.
"Even more worrying are the tentative signs that price momentum could be set to pick-up once again as the supply of stock to the market continues to fall.
"Anecdotal evidence does suggest that election uncertainty may be having some impact on the market, but underlying the trends visible in the latest survey is a very real housing crisis which will urgently need to be addressed by the next government.
"It is significant that price expectations nationally are accelerating both at the three and 12 month time horizons and at the latter they are at their highest level since the spring of last year."
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