House prices were unchanged in April, according to Hometrack. This is the first time for nine months that the survey has recorded no price fall.

The average house price now stands at £153,100.

Demand has risen 22% over the first four months of the year, while the number of sales agreed over the first quarter of 2011 grew by 46%.

Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said: “The relative strength of the London market continues to put a gloss on the headline results with price rises in London of 0.3% over April offsetting small falls of up to -0.3% across all other regions. The average time on the market has moved lower to stand at 9.6 weeks