House prices have risen by 0.4% over January driven largely off the back of the London market, while year on year rate of growth stands at 6%, the highest rate since July 2003.

Hometrack said above average house price growth in London may have put a gloss on the headline figure but prices remain unchanged across 72% of the country. House prices in London meanwhile grew by 0.8%.

In all other regions house price growth was below average, ranging from no change in the East Midlands to +0.3% in the South East and East Anglia.

Once again lack of supply of housing for sale and continued demand from buyers lie behind the London figures. Some of the highest growth was seen in the higher value areas of central and western London and the commuter areas adjacent to the capital such as Buckinghamshire and Essex.

Average time to sell times fall
Looking at the last 12 months, the pick up in market activity has seen the average time to sell a property fall from 8.1 weeks to 6.7 weeks with the proportion of asking price achieved increasing from 93.9% to 95.1%.