The average house price in England in the year to March 2018 grew by 4%, up from 3.9% in the year to February 2018, according to the latest UK House Price Index published by HM Land Registry.

However, despite the growth that England has experienced in the past 12 months, the prices are increasing at a slightly slower rate compared to the rest of the UK, which has seen growth levels of 4.2% in the year to March 2018.

The lowest annual growth in England was seen in London, where, in fact, growth was negative for the second consecutive month at -0.7%, down from -0.1% in the previous month. This figure represents the lowest annual growth that the capital has seen since September 2009, when it was negative 3.2%.

In March 2018, the most expensive area to live in England was Kensington and Chelsea, where the average cost of a house was £1.3m. In contrast, the cheapest area to purchase a property was in Burnley, with the average property costing just £78,000.

Across England, all property types experienced an increase in average price in March 2018, but detached houses saw the largest increase, rising by 5.1% to £368,000. The average price of flats and maisonettes showed a rise of 1.1% in March, increasing to £224,000, the smallest rise seen across the property types.

Bluestone mortgages director of sales and marketing Steve Seal said: “With house price growth rising at a more sustainable rate, it is very much a buyer’s market. However, the fact that many would-be homeowners still struggle to secure lending remains unchanged.

“Borrowers who may have experienced a bump in the road, such as an illness or unexpected event, find it challenging to meet the vanilla criteria of high-street lenders. Yet these borrowers do not deserve to be completely ousted from home ownership for simply missing one or two missed payments. Ultimately, the industry is failing to serve a significant proportion of these borrowers and until it recognises that this group is not full of repeat offenders, specialist lenders will continue to help them onto the property ladder instead.”

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