Annual house price growth across England and Wales increased to 12.2%, in August, the latest e.surv House Price Index has revealed.

The latest figure for the region covering the two nations is up from 9.9% in July.

e.surv’s index also indicated that prices in England and Wales climbed month-on-month by 0.7% in August, to take the average house price in these parts of the UK to £371,208.

This is an increase of more than £40,000 from August 2021, when the average stood at £330,745.

Commenting on the latest data, e.surv director, Richard Sexton, said that the figures demonstrate a “resilient” housing market, largely due to the continuing lack of supply of desirable stock and continued demand.

“It is likely that, with the current extended completion times in the market, many of the transactions reported were agreed four or five months ago,” Sexton said. “Therefore, while the headlines show that the market remains resilient, we should acknowledge that some of the current affordability issues facing homeowners may not be reflected in the data yet.

“It remains to be seen what effect that has on subsequent data and we should also consider the potential positive impact of any new support to address the cost of living crisis from the new government. Home buying is a market built on sentiment and what happens next will fundamentally affect that.”

He added: “As work habits continue to evolve and people settle into new ways of living and working, this continues to impact what people buy. We think the hybrid method of working from home for most of the week, is driving a revived interest in flats in the central areas of cities like London, which of course changes the mix of properties and values reflected in the index.

“How this plays out over time remains to be seen as many large companies have publicly already reverted to full-time office work.”

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