Figures released by the Halifax show that house prices have risen for the first time in 11 months.

According to the data, average prices rose in January by 1.9% to £163,966. However, economists are warning people not to read too much into the figures, which represent the market in a single month. Figures for the past three months show that house prices dropped 5.1% in comparison with the previous three months.

Seema Shah, a property economist at Capital Economics, noted the volatility of monthly house prices and predicted that “house prices have much further to fall”. Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax, also anticipated that this would be a difficult year for the housing market. However, he said the January figures might represent “early signs that the market activity may be stabilising, albeit at quite a low level”.

Meanwhile, figures released by the British Bankers’ Association show that the number of new mortgages approved for house buying jumped by 27% during December, but the average loan for a house purchase has fallen from £156,000 a year ago to £116,00 last month, reflecting the fall in property prices.

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