London leads U.K. house price rally

London leads U.K. house price rally

	Published : Mon, 01 May 2006 09:20 By : Richard Owen Print this Story

LONDON: U.K. house prices were on the rise for the fifth month in a row and April recorded the highest monthly rate of growth in about two years, property website Hometrack said in a report.

In its monthly survey, the website said house prices rose by 0.6 per cent during the month, the highest monthly increase since May 2004. Prices continued to rise in London and the South East and there is a growing mismatch between the number of buyers and the number of homes available for sale, which has contributed to this rise in prices, it said.

On an annualised basis, the prices were up 0.9 per cent.

Hometrack said prices remained almost unchanged in nearly 60 per cent of the country during the month. It predicted that the market activity may slow down in the months ahead as the summer is setting in and the football World Cup is slated to start.

The average price of a house is 163,500 pounds.

Hometrack's director of research Richard Donnell described London as the engine for national house price growth. House prices in the city are almost 1.2 per cent higher over the month and by 3 per cent over the last quarter. In other regions, the growth was less than 0.5 per cent over the last three months.

Similarly, demand for houses in London has gone up by 50 per cent during the past three months, while the number of homes offered on sale grew by just 14 per cent. The average time taken for a property to sell in London is 4.2 weeks, while in areas like East Midlands and North West it is nine weeks and in Wales 8.4 weeks.

Sellers in the city got more than 95 per cent of their asking price, compared with around 93 per cent in some other areas.

Hometrack said lenders and estate agents have reported that first-time buyers are active in the market, especially in London and the South East. However, they are not sure the strong growth levels recorded early this year would be maintained.