Nationwide stays upbeat after dip blip

Nationwide shrugged off the first monthly fall in house prices since last September yesterday as the lender raised hopes of growing momentum in the market.

House prices dropped 0.1 per cent in April, taking the cost of the average home down to £165,586.

However, the market is 0.9 per cent ahead of a year ago, and Nationwide says more growth is on the way with the cheap billions on offer from the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme and a raft of initiatives to boost the market in March's Budget.