The average asking price for a home in London has broken through half a million pounds for the first time.
The property website Rightmove said that the average of £509,870 in the capital is more than £16,000 higher than a month earlier and beats the previous record from March by 2.7 per cent.
The average asking price across England and Wales is £249,841, also a record, after a fifth consecutive monthly rise. This year has seen prices make their strongest start since 2004, driven by easier access to mortgages, while the amount of property coming on to the market remains relatively light.
Such muscular recent gains are prompting concerns that government schemes such as Help to Buy risk inflating another housing bubble. George Osborne, the