That left prices 5.2 percent higher in the three months to March compared with a year ago, and 9.1 percent above a low hit in April last year. The average price of a home stood at 168,521 pounds.

House prices have been rising since around mid-2009, mainly because of a scarcity of properties for sale, but Halifax said an increase in the number of homes on the market was starting to reduce that imbalance.

It said there were signs the market was starting to slow and noted that prices in the first three months of 2010 were just 0.6 percent higher than in the final quarter of 2009, down from a 3.6 percent rise between the third and fourth quarters of 2009.

The Halifax figures were broadly in line with data from rival mortgage lender Nationwide last week, which showed house prices rose 0.7 percent in March, although that was also only a rebound from a decline in February.

Many analysts reckon house prices will come under pressure this year because credit conditions remain tight, although the government's temporary increase in the threshold for property tax for first-time buyers should help.

"The Halifax data reinforces our suspicion that house prices will be erratic in 2010, and we still suspect that prices may very well be no better than flat over the year," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.