House prices grew by 0.6% over June, taking growth over the first six months of the year to 2.9%, according to the latest monthly survey from Hometrack released today.

National average monthly price change	+0.60%
12 month price change	+2.40%
Average house price	£165,500

Continuing recent trends, London continues to be the primary driver for growth with average prices in the capital rising by 1.1% over June, said the firm. Further away from the capital, growth remains more subdued, although prices have picked up moderately in recent months.

"Looking back over the first 6 months of the year there is a stark difference in performance between London and the rest of the country," commented Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack.

The major imbalance between supply and demand in London has caused prices to rise by almost 6% whilst growth in 4 regions has been less than 1%. The differentials in growth reflect the fact that the London housing market significantly under-performed the rest of the market between 2001 and mid 2005.

"A modest re-alignment of prices over this time meant that there was scope for what have been relatively high price rises, supported by a lack of housing for sale and expanding London economy. Pricing levels across most other regions, where house price growth was high over 2002 – 2005, remain very full and this has been a major constraint on the potential for growth in recent months," Donnell said.

House price growth over first half of 2006

The survey shows that house prices moved higher across 42% of the country, falling in just 2% of areas and remaining static across 56% of the 2200 postcode areas across England and Wales. The average time taken to sell has decreased to 6.5 weeks compared to 7.4 weeks a year ago. The average number of viewings per sale has also decreased to 10.9 from 13.2 a year ago.

Interestingly the survey shows that the number of sales agreed jumped by over 8% in June, up from a 3.3% rise over May. The rise in sales volumes was seen across the country.