The data from Rightmove, the UK's biggest residential property website, show that the average asking price rose 1.8% from March to £222,077. Prices increased the most in East Anglia, up 5.1 but they fell 3.2% in London, the only region of 10 surveyed to show a decline.
Residential property prices are now down 7.3% from a year earlier but the incrases could be enough to encourage buyers back into the market as mortgage approvals are also increasing.
'It looks like we are now bumping along the bottom of the trough,' said Miles Shipside, Rightmove's commercial director. He added that the market now needs a significant improvement in mortgage finance availability for it to start on the road to recovery.
The decline in property prices in London, where the average asking price was £403,505, was led by a 7.8% drop in Ealing. Average values in the capital's most expensive area, Kensington and Chelsea, fell 3.3% to £1.9 million.
Overall the signs as are encouraging, Rightmove says in its April House Price Index, but with mortgage approvals running at a third of recent levels more need to be done to stimulate recovery. 'My view is that many sellers are still starting too high, but the fact that they are coming to market in greater numbers and feel they can ask more shows a strengthening in resolve and confidence, which is an encouraging sign,' Shipside said.
'Feedback from estate agents suggests that prices actually being achieved are still around 25% below peak prices in many instances, though quality homes in desirable locations perform better,' he explained.
'Those parts of the country that have adjusted to the credit famine have found that prices have stabilised at around this level, giving substantial leeway for sales activity to increase if credit restrictions were to be relaxed,' he continued.
But he warned that recovery is not certain this year. 'Some sellers are doing deals at prices that have adjusted to the new reality, though there also remain some real property black spots of overpriced supply outstripping recession-dimmed demand. Those less desirable and harder hit areas will lag well behind in the recovery given the new era of financial prudence, and those that have to sell must be even more realistic,' he said.