Survey reveals 0.1% increase in August despite 6.7% year-on-year fall

House prices have risen for the first time in two years according to research from Hometrack, an independent housing research company.

The 0.1% increase seen in August marked the first time prices had gone up since July 2007 and followed three months of no price change. Year-on-year the drop was 6.7%.

However, Richard Donnell, Hometrack鈥檚 director of research, believes the rise should not be taken as evidence of any 鈥済reen shoots of recovery.鈥�

"Beneath the headlines, the results of the latest survey show that far from a national housing market on the up, the headline figures are being skewed by price rises that are restricted to relatively small pockets of the market suffering from a lack of housing for sale 鈥� primarily in London and the South-east,鈥� he said.

The Hometrack survey of 6,000 agents and surveyors, showed that price increases in August were limited to just 11% of the country, with London and the South-east making up three-quarters of the areas reporting price rises. Prices were static across the remaining 89% of the country.

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