A monthly survey produced by Hometrack based on information gathered from 1,800 estate agents provides some perspective to the current confusion on the health of the property market.

Just last month the general media carried the news of a 0.1% rise in house prices, yet estate agents, solicitors, sellers and purchasers on the ground were left scratching their heads as to where this mini-boom was actually taking place.

The report states that the 0.1% increase in January was entirely driven by the London property market while elsewhere it stagnated. Greater London, the south-east and the south-west all saw a 0.1% rise, while the market was flat in every other region. House price increases were concentrated in just 7% of postcodes in January and generally there was a fall in the number of new buyers and sellers coming to the market, and the level of sales agreed.

Hometrack's director of research, Richard Donnell warned that the recent property activity largely involved buyers with little or no mortgage and that "there is a danger that the resulting skew in transactions, towards higher-value property in better off areas, has led to the general health of the housing market being overstated."

Mortgage approvals also fell for the first time in over a year in December, with just over a thousand less than the previous month, adding further strength to the speculation that the mini-housing recovery may already be at an end.

Christine Farrell, Head of the Residential Property department at Wilson Nesbitt solicitors in Belfast, had reacted to the previous news of price increases by urging caution. "Sellers in Northern Ireland should be wary of statistics such as these that are based on UK figures and no doubt strengthened significantly by house prices on the mainland. Purchasers in Northern Ireland still face considerable difficulty obtaining a mortgage and overall market activity is still very slow."

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