House prices largely unchanged in January

House prices fell by just 0.1 per cent this month, with the price of a property still 4.2 per cent higher than a year ago, new figures have revealed.

The statistics, published by Nationwide, indicated that the average price of a property has increased by more than £7,000 over the past twelve months, currently standing at £180,473.

In the wake of the figures, the company's senior economist, Martin Gahbauer, claimed that, despite some recent falls in prices, there were suggestions of a more positive future for the market.

"There may be some tentative signs of bottoming out on the demand side, as evidenced by the recent behaviour of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor's measure of new buyer enquiries at estate agents," he said.

"As the year progresses, a key factor to watch will be how much pent-up demand returns to explore the market, and how much of this is translated into actual housing transactions."

Commenting on the prospects for rental landlords, and as a result the possibility of increased take-up in buy to let mortgages, he added: "We do not believe that the long-term fundamentals of buy to let are necessarily as poor as recent commentary may suggest."

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