UK house prices rose slightly in March (by 0.6 per cent), the first such such increase for about two years. Is this the first "green shoot of economic recovery," the deadly phrase that gets ministers into trouble if they even think of saying it? The credit crunch and its accompanying financial crisis began with problems in the US property market and it's not going to finish, in the US and UK anyway, until the property market recovers. The rest of the world is another matter, as the G20 leaders will be discussing today. Once that begins to happen the big banks, which have had their balance sheets blitzed by write-offs against property lending, can start to write some of this money back into their accounts and a whole host of hard-hit businesses, from furniture makers to DIY retailers, will see a modest sale uplift. Of course the very slight upturn in March might be brutally rubbed out by further financial disasters, as the Nationwide, which produced the figures, admits. But interest rates are at a historic low, mortgage rates are low too (although nowhere near interest rate levels on fixed-term deals) and the UK banks are beginning to lend again (mortgage approvals in February were up 19 per cent, admittedly from a very low level). House prices, clearly, have fallen sharply by over 20 per cent so first time buyers can see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get on the dreaded property ladder. But, with the average house price still £150,000, they need 90 per cent mortgages to do so. Lenders are going to be keener to offer these if prices stabilise and people don't plunge immediately into negative equity. So a green shoot it is. As the UK stock market, through 4,000 at last, is demonstrating.