House price growth hit double digits in July as values rose at their fastest rate for nearly seven years, figures showed today.
Annual property price inflation reached 10.2 per cent during the month, the highest level since September 2007, according to mortgage lender Halifax.
Prices rose by 1.4 per cent in July itself, to leave the average British home costing £186,322.
The quarter-on-quarter change, which is considered to be less volatile than the monthly figure, showed prices shooting ahead by 3.6 per cent – the biggest jump since December 2006.
The Halifax figures are at odds with ones released by Nationwide, which showed house prices inching ahead by just 0.1 per cent during July, while the annual rate of growth slowed to 10.6 per cent, down from 11.8 per cent.
The Land Registry also said house prices stalled in June, the latest month for which it has figures, with property values falling in seven regions of England and Wales.
Stephen Noakes, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “While supply remains low, housing demand continues to be supported by a continuing economic recovery, growth in employment, improving consumer confidence and low mortgage rates.”
But other surveys have pointed to a slowdown in demand from potential buyers, as well as an increase in supply as homeowners put their properties on the market in a bid to cash in on the recent price gains.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said new enquiries from potential buyers had continued to ease in June, as people balked at high house prices and became more cautious in the face of future interest rate rises.
Both RICS and the National Association of Estate Agents also reported seeing an increase in the number of sellers coming to the market, further easing the mismatch between supply and demand.
Matthew Pointon, property economist at Capital Economics, said: “The month to month changes have been pretty volatile from Halifax recently, so we do not read too much into that.
“It is surprising that the three-month-on-three-month measure has picked up after being stable for a while.
“But given other signs of a cooling in housing market activity, we expect house price gains to slow over the coming months.”
He added that he expected mortgage approvals to continue to increase going forward, but at a slower rate, as new measures to cool the mortgage market came into force.
Strong house price growth has pushed up the average cost of a home in Britain to £263,705, according to Zoopla.
