This report is a non-story -- these are asking prices, not selling prices and if vendors think prices are only down 6.2% YOY, then they are delusional!

You need to look at the statistics more closely and not take them at face value. They are not for May (how can they be when they are released on 18th May?) but for the period 12th April to 9th May, a period that included Easter and May Day Bank Holiday, therefore not surprising that the number of new instructions were down - people were doing other things and many agency offices would have been closed on the Bank Holidays. As for asking prices, possibly one reason for the increase is that vendors with lovely gardens (which often go with homes in tip-top condition) wait until the leaves are on the trees to sell, so there is generally a higher proportion of better quality homes and aspirational vendors late April/early May.