Hometrack reports a third monthly rise - a gain of 0.4% (the largest single amount in over a year and a half). Interestingly, it's a regionally mixed picture, not every place is thriving, and overall it still leaves an annual decline in prices. London - however - has been thriving, driving the figures with a 0.9% monthly rise. More, here. The Independent looks a bit closer at the London market with help from Knight Frank estate agents. And according to them, it's buyers from the Middle East, China and India who are injecting a bit of life into the prime London residential sector.

Purchases of prime London properties by buyers based in Asia Pacific have risen from zero two years ago to almost 10 per cent in the final quarter of last year. Middle Easterners, who were inactive in the London market at the start of 2004, took 7 per cent of the market at the end of 2005.

We'll bring you a link to the Hometrack report as soon as it appears on their website.