January's price increase reverses a fall of 1.6% in December – a revised figure, with Halifax previously reporting a 2.2% drop– and the average price of a home in the UK now stands at £163,966, more than £4,000 higher than at the end of December.

However, the annual rate of change, measured by comparing the average for the latest three months against the same period a year earlier, shows year-on-year falls increased to 17.2% in January from 16.2% in December.

Halifax said it was important not to place too much emphasis on any one month's figures, and that the three-month figures, which are a better indictor of underlying trends in the market, showed prices had fallen by 5.2%.

Halifax's housing economist, Martin Ellis, said: "Historically, house prices have not moved in the same direction month after month even during a pronounced downturn.