House prices heating up after summer break

Nationwide hopes for  a sustainable increase in housing market activity
Nationwide hopes for a sustainable increase in housing market activity

The British housing market may have had a brief summer lull, but prices are on the rise again.

The latest figures from Nationwide indicate that house prices increased by 0.4 per cent last month, pushing the annual rate of house price growth up to 3.5 per cent.

The building society, which compiles the survey using its own mortgage lending data, said that the average price of a home in Britain had hit £195,621, up from £195,055 in June.

Although news of further price increases will fuel fears that Britain’s housing market is overheating — especially when the latest construction purchasing managers’ index showed a slowdown in residential building — Nationwide said that there were “tentative signs” of stabilisation in the market.

Robert Gardner, its chief