Last month's surprise hike in house prices has been followed by the return of tougher market conditions as values fell 0.4% during April, it has been revealed.

Nationwide Building Society said after the first price rise in 16 months during March - of 0.9% - the average value of a UK home fell to £151,861.

The lender also reported that the annual fall in values fell to 15%, adding that the slowdown has helped improve affordability for struggling buyers.

It added house-hunters were also benefiting from the Chancellor's recent Budget decision to continue the stamp duty exemption for homes worth less than £175,000.

This means the typical house price is now below the stamp duty threshold everywhere except London and the outer metropolitan region.

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "It is possible that the extended period of the higher threshold will be more of an incentive for first-time buyers to enter the market now that affordability has improved due to falling interest rates and house prices.

"But it seems more likely that, for the most part, buyers will remain cautious as long as they think that prices will continue to fall."

She added although consumers were expecting prices to fall over the next six months, the property market could take some solace in the fact that it would probably be at a slower rate.

Last month's shock rise in prices was the first in a run of positive data on the market, with the Council of Mortgage Lenders saying lending rose by 16% during the month, and HM Revenue and Customs publishing figures showing that the number of homes changing hands soared by 40% in March.

Property intelligence group Hometrack also recently released figures showing that house prices fell at their slowest rate for more than a year during April.

But the British Bankers Association provided a dose of realism earlier this week when it said the number of mortgages approved for house purchase had fallen for the first time in four months, slumping by 7% in March.

All measures of mortgage lending were slightly weaker during the month than they had been in February.

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