Nationwide issued its house price index for September yesterday. It showed that house prices rose on average 0.9% between August and September. The tri-monthly measure, which is less volatile and widely regarded as the more accurate short term indicator rose from a growth of 3.3% in the 3 months ending August, to a growth of 3.8% in the 3 months ending September.

This is the fifth monthly rise recorded by the Nationwide, and the lender now has the average UK house price at the same as it was in September last year -- before the catastrophic collapse of Lehman Brothers.

None the less, this still does not signal the end of the crisis, because -- as even Nationwide acknowledge -- transactions are still far too low to support such growth, leaving it based solely on the drastic shortage of housing supply.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's chief economist said:

"The further increase in house prices is very much consistent with improvements in a broad range of economic and financial indicators over the last few months, all of which suggest that the most intense phase of the recession and financial crisis has probably passed. However, given that the housing market still faces considerable headwinds in the form of high unemployment, restrictive credit conditions and an impending withdrawal of the stamp duty holiday, it would be surprising to see house prices continuing to increase at the very strong rate seen in recent months."

But as we continue to say, house prices make no difference to people who want to sell their house, because you will save what you lose on the house you buy, which will also have lost value. Sell your house with Zungalow for just £29 per year.

When the financial crisis crossed the Atlantic and Britain began to feel the effects, which were quickly felt in the housing market, nowhere felt it quicker than London. With that in mind, there is weight to the claims that the London market will also be the first to show signs of recovery.

If you take some reports at face value then that recovery is not so very far away, in London at least.

In a press release issued today, but containing quotations collated last week, Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward staff are extremely optimistic about the London housing market.

"In Muswell Hill, things tend to dip over Easter as families drift away for the school holidays, but I think that after the break, we will again see people making a definite bid to move over the summer, in preparation for the new school year," said Andrew Hunt sales manager at KLF's Muswell Hill Branch.

Hunt also said that several Muswell Hill properties had received above asking price offers in the past month, and that there had been an increase in the number of properties receiving multiple bids.

KLF's Streatham Branch are also receiving multiple offers on properties, and their sales manager James Brooks has said that prices are no longer falling in the borough.

"Following on from a good February, we are seeing multiple offers being made on properties and a high level of buyers registering with us. Prices are remaining competitive, but are certainly not falling in Streatham," he said, adding:

"Easter normally marks the start of the busiest period in the housing market and we are expecting good activity. Mortgage rates are coming down and this is attracting buyers who are looking to make offers."

Fellow KLF sales manager Mai Pexton told a similarly positive story of optimism for the Marylebone borough and the buoyancy of the Central London market.

"The current climate offers some vendors the opportunity to go to sealed bids and we have seen properties with three or more potential buyers bidding, which provides a very exciting situation for our clients," she said.

The Forest Hill Branch also noted over asking price offers, and "far greater activity in the market." And the Earlsfield Branch sales manager was also positive about greater buyer confidence in the market, and offers getting closer to asking price.

In fact the one exception to the completely positive tone of the release was from the Kennington branch.

"Looking forward, I think the new HIP regulation will affect instruction levels in April. Speculative vendors are being put off by the potential delays in marketing, but I expect this to be short term and in my experience the motivated sellers are still very much committed to moving," said Kennington sales manager Justin Bhoday.

It will be interesting to see whether the KLF's optimism for the month of April was realised, and whether transaction levels begin to return to somewhere close to normal levels.