Prices are likely to continue to rise over the next month or so as a result of buyers returning to the market and supply remaining limited.

London continues to be the engine for national house price growth. In the short term, prices in London are likely to be supported by an ongoing shortage of housing for sale.

A resurgent market in London, where prices grew by 1.1 percent, has put something of a gloss on the headline results.

The pick up in activity levels and prices over the final quarter has created optimism that values will continue to rise slowly over the year ahead. The recovery in London is set to continue and spread to the Southeast over the year.

Whilst activity levels may have improved over the autumn of 2005 on the back of more realistic pricing, it does not automatically follow that prices will start to rise.

Vendors are going to have to be more realistic about prices. We are going to see a prolonged period of underperformance.

A lack of new housing coming onto the market for sale in London is supporting particularly strong rises.

Activity levels held up quite strongly over the final weeks of 2005 compared to previous years. The scale of new buyer registrations over the next few weeks will be an important indication of what sort of year we can expect for the market.