The number of homes sold in June was 20% up from May as 63,500 were recorded against 52,975 in the previous month.

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House prices show little movement in 2010 – with a slight month-on-month fall of 0.6% from April to June, according to the Halifax House Price Index.

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March data from the Land Registry’s House Price Index shows the monthly change from February to March is a decrease of 0.6%.

The year-on-year figures show an annual price increase of 7.5% which takes the average property value in England and Wales to £164,288.

According to the Land Registry, every region in England and Wales experienced increases in their average property values over the last 12 months.

The region with the highest annual price change is London with an increase of 13%. The region with the lowest annual price rise is Wales with a movement of 1.1%.

London and the North East experienced the greatest monthly rises with upward movements of 1.6%. The East Midlands is the region with the most significant monthly price fall with a movement of -2.1%.

The most up-to-date figures available show that during January 2010, the number of completed house sales in England and Wales rose by 30% to 34,171 from 26,208 in January 2009.

Land Registry data is based on completed sales registered during the month.

House prices were up 1% in April from March, according to the Nationwide Building Society.

The rise means house prices are up 10.5% on the same time last year and shows the first double digit growth since April 2007, before the credit crunch started.

Nevertheless, prices are still 10% below their peak in October 2007.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% month-on-month in April, leaving house prices 10.5% higher than a year earlier.

“April’s figures show the first double-digit annual growth in UK house prices since June 2007. The year-on-year rate in this month’s figures, however, received an additional boost from the fact that April 2009 was one of the weaker months last year.

“Given the very strong performance of house prices from May 2009 onwards, it will take monthly increases in excess of 1% for the annual rate of inflation to be maintained in double digits going forward. The smoother three month on three month rate of inflation edged down further from 1.5% in March to 1.1% in April, which primarily reflects the impact of February’s 1.0% decline in house prices. April’s figures leave UK house prices exactly 10% below the October 2007 peak.”

The figures put the average house price at £167,802.

Mortgage lenders have told the Bank of England that they expect little change in house prices or lending for the rest of the year.

Remortgaging is down for the fifth consecutive quarter and new mortgage availability is more or less static with a slight shift towards higher loan to value ratios.

The disclosures come from the Bank’s latest Credit Conditions Survey for the first quarter of 2010.

Mortgage lenders have told the Bank they expect mortgage availability to remain unchanged over the next quarter.

Easing loan to value ratios is expected to ease remortgaging, but lenders expect transactions to remain low.

Some lenders attribute this to low standard variable rate mortgages, to which many shorter fixed-term mortgages had reverted on expiry.

Net mortgage lending by all mortgage lenders was little changed in February at £1.6 billion. Both the annual and quarterly growth rates  of lending were stable.

House prices are breaking away from the shackles of recession  edging up in many countries across the world, according to global research in The Economist.

This year, house prices in 10 of the 20 countries monitored show an increase year-on-year.

The magazine has analysed the market and argues house prices are still overvalued in many countries – including the UK.

“British house prices had risen by nearly 10% in the year to the end of the first quarter of 2010, but the country’s price-to-rent ratio still outstrips its long-term average by nearly a third,” said the article.

“This pattern—of prices rising in markets where houses still look overvalued—is also seen in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Sweden and Canada. In France, Italy, Spain and Ireland, houses do appear overpriced relative to their earnings potential, but at least prices there are still falling.”

Hong Kong leads the field with prices more than 25% above the previous year.

Canada, where house prices are rising, new rules make it more expensive to buy an investment property and reduce the amount that existing homeowners can borrow against their houses.

Singapore has gone from being one of the most depressed housing markets in the third quarter of 2009 to the second best-performing in the three months to March.

Japan, Switzerland and Germany have housing-to-rent ratios below their long-run average.

For America, one version of The Economist’s fair-value measure suggests that the correction in house prices may have gone far enough while other statistics show they may still need to adjust.

“Prices measured using the Case-Shiller national index have fallen enough to make US houses look underpriced. In the big American cities covered by the Case-Shiller ten-city index, the price-to-rent ratio is nearing its historic average,” said The Economist.

“Houses in America are still overvalued by around 13% if prices are measured using the index maintained by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but this excludes properties financed using subprime mortgages, many of which have been sold at very low prices, and so may understate the extent to which prices have been plummeting.”

Estate agents are reporting another improvement in the housing market as key indicators for measuring performance step up from February.

The National Association of Estate Agents Association (NAEA) survey reports:

• Numbers of house-hunters registered per branch increased from 258 in February to 274 in March
• Numbers of sales agreed per branch increased from an average of seven (6.8) in February to eight (8.0) in March
• Average numbers of properties available for sale per branch increased from 56 in February to 60 in March
• The percentage of first time buyers (FTBs) decreased slightly from 24% in February to 23% in March

March has been an encouraging month for the property market with a positive number of buyers looking to sell their home.

This month’s figures reveal an increase in the levels of housing stock with more properties available for sale per branch – the highest value recorded over the last six months. More house-hunters also registered their interest.

The FTB segment of the market remained stable this month, with a slight decrease on last month’s figures. This brought them in line with the percentage of FTB buyers on the market this time last year.

The latest UK house price index statistics produced based on mortgage completions during February 2010 were released today by the Communities and Local Government Department.

The key points are:

• UK house prices were 7.4% higher than in February 2009 and 0.1% lower than in January 2010 (seasonally adjusted).
• The mix-adjusted average house price in the UK stood at £204,359 in February 2010 (not seasonally adjusted).
• UK house prices rose by 2.9% in the quarter ending February 2010. This compares with a larger rise of 3.4% for the quarter ending November 2009 (seasonally adjusted).
• Annual average house prices rose in England (7.9%, Scotland (4.2%) and Wales (4.7%), but fell in Northern Ireland (-8.3%).
• Annual average house prices paid by first time buyers in February 2010 were 9.3% higher than a year ago. Average house prices paid by former owner occupiers were 6.6% higher.
• Annual average house prices paid for new properties in February 2010 were 3.9% lower than a year ago. Average house prices paid on pre-owned dwellings were 8.2% higher.

Surveyors have seen the highest home selling activity since May 2007 – the month before the introduction of HIPS -  while the rate of house price rises slowed, says the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) housing market survey for March.

For the third consecutive month, new instructions  outpaced new buyer inquiries.  One in five surveyors (21%) saw new instructions go up, compared with 16% in February.

Price trends varied, with London, the south east and Scotland performing best, but more surveyors reported prices falling  in East Anglia, Yorkshire,  Humberside, the north and the West Midlands.

Other indicators show the average surveyor has 67 properties to sell – up 6% from February and the largest month-on-month increase in a year.

Sales fell 2.8% in the month to 17 a surveyor

Overall, RICS expects prices to level out over the coming months

“With the general election approaching and uncertainty growing over the political direction of the country, many sellers who were previously inclined to sit on the sidelines now appear eager to put their properties on the market,” said a RICS spokesman.

“For the time being, many of the key housing market indicators are still positive or stable. However, with stocks increasing and sales decreasing we may see some modest price falls in some regions although some areas are continuing to perform well.”

London house prices are hitting record highs – even when compared to soaring prices before the recession.

The average house price in London rose £748 last month to £376,605, according to independent house price analysts Acadametrics.

Their index also shows property sales in the capital between December 1 and the end of February were up 86% on the same period year-on-year.

Acadametrics put the increase down to higher demand, a rock bottom market and low interest rates.

The group’s index puts the average house price for England and Wales at £227,788 for March 2010. Completed sales were up 1.1% up from February.

the year-on-year comparison shows the price of a home is up 13.4%, which is a massive turnaround from March 2009 when the annual change stood at -13.1%.

Dr Peter Williams, chairman of Academetrics, said the average price of a home is back to levels last seen in August 2007.

“However, transaction numbers remain relatively low, such that small pockets of demand can exert a higher influence on price than one would see in a more active mortgage market,” he commented.

Acadametrics is a research-based consultancy based in London focused upon the housing market. Unlike the Nationwide and Halifax indices, the group is not involved in lending mortgages.