House prices in England and Wales were up 0.9% over February, new data from the FT house price index shows.

And the annual rate of house price inflation was 7.6% in February, according to the index modelled on figures from the Land Registry - a rate of increase that has remained almost constant since September last year, when it climbed to 7.3%.

Both figures were in line with results over the last six months, pointed out Peter Williams, chairman of Acadametrics, which conducts the research for the FT House Price Index. “They continue to indicate that nationally house prices have reached a plateau."

He added: "We have yet to see the full impact of interest rate increases on the market because with many borrowers remortgaging and using fixed-rate mortgages the effect takes time to work through the market.”

"Measures of consumer confidence suggest this remains low but continued rising prices will impact upon expectations in 2007 even though, at this time, it is largely London driven."

Looking at the regional breakdown, the research shows properties in London, the south-west and East Anglia have experienced the largest growth over the last year, rising 11.1, 8.7 and 8.2% respectively.

Tale of two cities

Strip out London, which has seen a rise of 11% during the past year, and overall house price inflation for England and Wales falls from 7.5% to about 6.5%.

"London continues to have a large impact on the national figures and we note that price increases in some regions are now quite muted," commented Peter Williams.

However, London is not a single housing market and never has been, said the report. New figures from the FT house price index for individual London boroughs show huge variations across the city in the level of house prices and house price inflation during the past seven years.

The study reveals London's average annual rate of growth over the past six months ranges from 28.7% in the City of London to 2.2% in the City of Westminster.

Also experiencing strong growth over the same period are Kensington and Chelsea (up 18.5%), Camden (up 17.8%) and Richmond (up 17%).

The lowest levels of annual growth in London are in Greenwich (up 4.3%), followed by Barking and Dagenham (up 4.4%), Newham (up 4.7%) and Enfield (up 4.8%).

The FT index includes cash purchases and is the only index to use all of the Land Registry data. The data is adjusted with an "index of indices" model in order to account for transactions not yet reported to the Land Registry.