'Continued rise' in house prices

House prices have come out of a major slump, figures show

House prices in England and Wales rose by 0.9% in September compared with August and sales also picked up over the summer, the Land Registry has said.

The average home in England and Wales cost £158,377, the figures showed.

This was 5.6% cheaper than the same month a year earlier, but September was the fifth consecutive month when the year-on-year price fall has slowed.

Sales were higher in July compared with July 2008, after months of lower year-on-year sales figures, it said.

Completed sales have risen steadily each month since January 2009 when they stood at 26,662.

The latest data shows that there were 57,579 sales in England and Wales in July, 9% more than the same month a year earlier.

Mixed picture

The Land Registry data lags behind some of the other house price surveys as it deals with completed sales, however it is widely considered as the most authoritative poll.

MONTHLY HOUSE PRICE CHANGE London: 1.3% rise, average price £314,954 South East: 1.1%, £198,084 East Midlands: 0.9%, £125,185 North West: 0.8%, £116,416 South West: 0.7%, £169,267 Yorkshire and the Humber: 0.7%, £124,109 West Midlands: 0.4%, £131,075 East: 0.4%, £167,119 North East: 0.6% fall, £109,289 Wales: 2.6% fall, £119,717 Source: Land Registry, September 2009

It echoed the position that other surveys have shown - that the housing market has climbed out of the rapid decline in property values.

But the position is different depending on the location of properties.

Prices fell month-on-month in the north-east of England (down 0.6%) and in Wales (down 2.6%). At the other end of the scale, prices rose in London by 1.3%.

Flats and maisonettes across England and Wales witnessed the biggest annual drop in prices, down 6.8%, with detached homes down the least at 4.3%.

The changing values over the past year are clear at the two extremes of the property scale.

More homes were changing hands in July that cost less than £100,000 than in July 2008. In the same period, the number of £1m-plus homes that were sold fell by 9% from 534 to 488.