FT: 0.9% rise in house prices

Friday, 9 March 2007 12:00 AM

The price of the average property rose by 0.9 per cent in February, new research shows.

The average property in England and Wales increased by just under £2,000 from January to February, going from £212,944 to reach £214,858 last month, the FT House Price reveals.

In the last year house prices have risen 7.6 per cent, virtually the annual rise as in October 2006, and an indication the level of house price inflation is beginning to slow.

"Monthly house price growth at 0.9 per cent and annual growth at 7.6 per cent are both in line with our results over the last six months," said Peter Williams, chairman of Acadametrics, which conducted the research.

"They continue to indicate that nationally house prices have reached a plateau."

Mr Williams added house prices in London continue to have a large impact on the England and Wales average, noting some regions had "quite muted" house price rises.

"In the last three months most of the regional markets in England and Wales have experienced an average growth rate that is either at or below the national rate of 7.5 per cent, whilst the annual rate in London still stands at some 10.8 per cent and that in the south-west has risen to 8.6 per cent," he said.

However, the price index also finds prices within London have been rising at vastly different levels.

"The current month figures for London reveal that the average annual rate of growth over the past six months ranges from 28.7 per cent (City of London) to 2.2 per cent (City of Westminster)," Mr Williams noted.

"Elsewhere in the capital Kensington and Chelsea (18.5 per cent), Camden (17.8 per cent) and Richmond upon Thames (17.0 per cent) have also performed strongly while trends in Greenwich (4.3 per cent), Barking and Dagenham (4.4 per cent), Newham (4.7 per cent) and Enfield (4.8 per cent) give a sense of the wide dispersion of price movements across London."

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