House prices still show growth

House price inflation is back on an upward path because of dwindling stocks of properties and a strong surge in buyer interest, research showed.

Property web site Rightmove.co.uk said asking prices lifted 3.3% in October - the largest rise in 18 months - as more properties came off the market than onto it.

The monthly growth pushed the annual rate of price inflation to 9.8% from 9.1%, the first time the figure has risen in ten months.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: "There's been a clear upsurge in activity, with many first time buyers and investors back looking for properties, particularly at the cheaper end of the market.

"People who had been waiting in the expectation of a significant downward price correction have realised it's not going to happen. Now they are buying - acknowledging that the market has bottomed out."

Rightmove said the market continued to be skewed in favour of the seller, with around 35,000 more homes coming off the market this month than coming on.

The shortage of stock was most noticeable in Greater London, where 6,300 more properties came off the market and contributed to a 4.5% rise in asking prices to an average of £262,868.

Year-on-year house price inflation for the capital, which went into negative territory last month, is now up 2.5% on a year earlier.

Elsewhere in the country, house price inflation stood at 7% in the South East, 11.9% in the South West, 13.4% in East Anglia, 24.4% in the North, 21.8% in Wales, 21.7% in the West Midlands and 21.6% in the North West.

All property types saw prices surge, with cheaper homes rising the most. Terraced houses were up 5% to an average of £131,750, flat and apartments went up 4.5% to an average of £141,754 and detached properties rose 2.7% to an average of £248,949.Rightmove's report is based on asking prices of properties marketed by 3,700 estate agents.

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