Fresh signs of a slowdown in the housing market are expected this week when one of the most highly regarded barometers of the sector is released.

The UK Residential Market Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is seen as one of the best lead indicators of house price movement. It is expected to show a dip in the balance of members reporting house price rises.

The figures will come after a new dip in prices was recorded by Halifax and following last week's warning from a leading housing economist, reported exclusively in The Mail on Sunday, that Britain was 'due a house price correction'.

Most economists may not be predicting a house price collapse just yet, but nervous homebuyers may have reason to be fearful

Ahead of this week's survey, Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, a consultancy, said: 'I expect the survey to be pretty soft on the activity front again, with buyer enquiries, agreed sales and instructions to sell all muted.

'It may well be that heightened uncertainty after the General Election weighed down on an already fragile housing market in June.'

The survey's headline figure, a balance of surveyors who have seen price rises in the past three months against those who saw falls, is set to be +15, down from +17 in May, Archer said.

House price data has so far suggested a softening in the market rather than a crash.

However, The Mail on Sunday last weekend reported that Britain could be on the brink of a major 1990s-style house price collapse, according to an academic at the London School of Economics.

Professor Paul Cheshire, who has advised the Government on housing policy, said: 'We are due a significant correction in house prices. I think we are beginning to see signs that correction may be starting.

This graph shows how growth rates had consistently fallen over the last year - and may continue to slump further

'Historically, trends seem always to start in London, then move out across the rest of the country. In the capital, you are already seeing house prices rising less rapidly than in other parts of Britain.'

But other forecasters argue his fears are misplaced. Noble Francis, economics director of the Construction Products Association, said: 'The data would suggest the housing market has slowed. If it were to slow further that wouldn't be a major surprise, but there's no data that suggests a collapse.'

Cheshire's view differs from that of the main forecasters because it is not a prediction based on analysis of several collections of data and models of the economy. Instead, it is an observation based on his research showing the huge volatility in UK house prices.

Dutch banking group ING is the only major economic forecaster in the City predicting falls in house prices both this year and next

'The housing market across the whole of England is on average substantially more volatile than any single metropolitan area in the whole of the US,' Cheshire told The Mail on Sunday. So when falls come, they can be substantial.

The shortage of homes, which others say helps prop up the market, also contributes to the huge volatility, he argued.

Real incomes are the key underlying driver of prices, he said. But he conceded that it was not easy to call turning points in the market.

Cheshire said: 'Economists are pretty good at understanding the fundamentals, but they are not at all good at predicting turning points in markets.'

His colleague Professor Christian Hilber is similarly guarded about the likelihood of big falls.

He said: 'I am not in the business of forecasting house prices, and we can't be certain at this stage, but looking at recent price developments it indeed looks increasingly likely that the markets are indeed turning from 'boom' to 'bust' once again and, indeed, starting from parts of London and spreading outwards.

'Whether the correction will be as stark as in the early 1990s is really difficult to say.'

Hilber said a 1990s-style collapse – when prices fell 37 per cent in real terms over six years according to Nationwide Building Society – is a 'possible' scenario, depending on whether Brexit has severe economic effects.

Dutch banking group ING is the only major economic forecaster in the City predicting falls in house prices both this year and next, according to a recent Treasury survey of surveys.

ING expects a 2 per cent dip this year and a 5 per cent drop next year as real incomes dwindle.

More upbeat forecasts are beginning to become muted. Samuel Tombs, UK economist at consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, said last week that the risks were now 'to the downside' of his forecast of 2 per cent house price inflation in 2017.

Most economists may not be predicting a house price collapse just yet, but nervous homebuyers may have reason to be fearful.