Nine per cent more chartered surveyor estate agents confirmed a rise in prices than a fall for the three months to January, compared to eight per cent in December.
Surveyors are reporting that buyer enquiries have increased for the eighth consecutive month, the longest continual increase since the survey began. Completed sales are up by 15 per cent compared to this time last year. This heightened activity is driving price rises, though there are no signs that the market is returning to the boom conditions between 1997 and 2002.
Overall stocks of property on chartered surveyor estate agents books fell by two per cent over the last three months and are at a 15-month low, despite an increase of new property placed on the market by sellers.
Earlier this week the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) released figures showing that UK annual house price inflation in December 2005 was 2.9 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in November 2005. The figure for the three months to December 2005 was 2.2 per cent.
ODPM figures show that annual house price inflation in London was 3.8 per cent in December 2005, up from 1.5 per cent in November 2005 and for the three months to December 2005 it was 1.4 per cent.
The UK house price inflation rate rose from 2.2 per cent in November 2005 to 2.9 per cent in December 2005. Prices were almost unchanged between November and December, compared to a fall of 0.7 per cent seen over the same period last year.
The UK average house price decreased marginally between November and December by less than 0.1 per cent. Average prices for bungalows and semi-detached houses fell by 1.0 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively while prices for terraced houses rose by 1.3 per cent.
In the home countries, England, and Scotland saw rises in annual inflation in December, while inflation fell in Wales and Northern Ireland. The inflation rate in England rose from 1.4 per cent in November to 2.1 per cent in December and in Scotland rose from 8.3 per cent to 10.9 per cent.
Over the same period, the inflation rate in Wales fell from 5.7 per cent to 5.1 per cent and in Northern Ireland the rate fell from 17.6 per cent to 12.9 per cent.
The highest inflation rates remain in the north in North West (7.6 per cent), North East (6.5 per cent), and in Yorkshire and the Humber (6.3 per cent). Inflation rates were lower in other parts of England; in London (3.8 per cent), West Midlands (1.8 per cent) and South West (0.8 per cent).
House prices in the East Midlands were unchanged over the previous year and inflation rates in the East, and South East regions were -1.4 per cent and -0.3 per cent respectively.
