Rising house prices add £10k of value in a year as official data show property- UK

House prices increased by 2.9 per cent in the year to May 2013, up from a rate of 2.6 per cent the month before, official data showed today.
That means the average price for a UK property now sits at £239,000, according to the Office for National Statistics house price index. In December, this stood at £233,000 and in May last year, £229,000, highlighting the fast growth in the last 12 months.
Broken down into countries, England has seen property prices shoot up by 3.1 per cent, Northern Ireland by 1.9 per cent, Scotland 0.8 per cent and Wales 0.6 per cent.

Growth: House prices have been nudging up since the start of last year according to ONS figures

According to the ONS, May 2013 is the first month that Northern Ireland house prices have grown year-on-year since February 2008.
Average house prices in May 2013 stood at £248,000 in England, £134,000 in Northern Ireland, £180,000 in Scotland and £157,000 in Wales.

The ONS says the annual house price increases in England were driven by a whopping 6.6 per cent rise in London and a 2.7 per cent in the North West and the West Midlands.
If the figures excluded London and the South East, UK house prices increased by a smaller 1.9 per cent in the last year.

Regional growth: Every single region in Britain saw property values increase in the 12 months to May 2013

The ONS figures show that London has the highest average house price at £416,000, while the North East had the lowest average house price at £144,000.

First-time buyer numbers continue to grow

According to LSL Property Services, some 9,600 more first-time buyers secured a mortgage in the first four months of this year than in 2012.
The average price for properties bought by a first-time buyer increased by 4.1 per cent over the year to May 2013 with the average price paid for a property being £181,000, the ONS figures have revealed today.
The graph below shows the boom in first-time buyers, especially in April and May:

The flurry of first-time buyers is being fuelled by the Government’s Funding for Lending scheme that offers banks cheap finance, and its Help To Buy initiative, which allows buyers to secure a new-build home up to the price of £600,000 with only a five per cent deposit.
David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services plc, said: ‘Funding for Lending and Help to Buy have played a critical role. There have been 7,000 reservations for Help to Buy over the past three months, and FLS has encouraged lenders to make mortgages more affordable and accessible for first-time buyers.
‘They’ve been like a steroid injection for the mortgage market. High LTV mortgage lending is 47 per cent higher than it was this time last year, and first-time buyer lending is up 42 per cent, which has led to a sharp boost in sales’.