Official figures show 1.3% rise in house prices

London continued to lead house price growth higher in September, official sales data from the Land Registry reveals today.

The information from the government agency shows last month house prices rose 1.3 per cent, the first time since October 2004 when monthly growth exceeded one per cent.

This spurt has seen the average house price in England and Wales reach £169,569, some 6.3 per cent higher than in the same month last year.

And it is London that is driving growth higher, with a monthly increase of two per cent in September and 9.5 per cent in the last 12 months.

London appears to be basing its soaring prices on growth at the top end of the market, with the number of properties sold worth more than £1 million, up 49 per cent between July 2005 and July 2006.

However, the Land Registry, which records the price of every property that changes hands in England and Wales and is the only index to include private sales and cash purchases, reports some areas have done considerably worse than this.

In the north-east house prices are now just 1.9 per cent higher than in September last year. And in the last month property prices have actually fallen two per cent from their August levels.

More locally, Blackburn and Darwen in Lancashire had the highest annual price change of England and Wales' counties, with the average property gaining 12.1 per cent in the last 12 months.

The City of Nottingham experienced the weakest price rise, with properties on average only increasing 0.3 per cent in value in the last year.

On a monthly basis it was the Welsh counties of Denbighshire, Powys and Newport that saw the fastest growth - rising over three per cent in September alone.

Darlington witnessed the largest monthly fall, with house prices retreating 2.5 per cent in September. XXX