The January numbers looked overly weak, in light of recent developments in the housing market so some recovery in these figures was to be expected.

We attach great importance to recent developments,

I'm not a housing market expert, and I don't want to pretend to be one.

Anyone who thinks there's safety in numbers hasn't looked at the stock market pages.

We believe fundamentally that the market should consolidate. The strong should get stronger and the weak should go to the wall, and the market should determine that.

This increased housing market activity has clearly led to some recent firming in house prices, and there is undeniably a risk that prices could move sharply higher over the coming months.