House prices up 0.9% in March.

The society’s monthly snapshot of the market showed the average price of a property in the UK increased to £150,946.

The rise follows 16 months of falls, and reverses some of the 1.9% drop recorded in February, but the society said it was a “surprise bounce” and it was too early to talk of house price recovery.

Rival lender the Halifax surprised commentators when it reported a 1.9% increase in prices in January, but this was more than offset by a fall in February. However, this week the Bank of England said the number of loans taken out by homebuyers had risen by 19% in February, with 37,937 loans approved during the month, leading to suggestions that activity in the market may have bottomed out.

Nationwide’s regional breakdown of house prices, also published today, showed a continued fall in all parts of the UK in the first quarter of the year.

Northern Ireland continued to see the biggest drop, with prices down by almost a third (29%) on the same period last year, while in Scotland prices dropped by just 12.6%.

However, the quarterly rate of falls halved in Northern Ireland, from 8% in the last three months of 2008 to 4.1%, and for the first time it did not record the largest quarterly fall in the UK – this was in Wales where prices fell 8.3%.