According to the Halifax house price index the price of the average UK home rose 1.1 % In March.

This was the eighth rise in the last nine months and the March rises pushed prices up 9.1 per cent since hitting their lowest point in April 2009.

Martin Ellis, housing economist, said the rate of growth was still slowing overall after the return of the £125,000 Stamp Duty threshold and poor weather at the start of the year.

He said: “There are signs that an increase in the number of properties available for sale is beginning to reduce the imbalance between supply and demand. This should help to contain the upward pressure on house prices.”

The average house price is now £168,521.

In addition, Bank of England industry-wide figures show that the number of mortgages approved to finance house purchase – a leading indicator of completed house sales – fell by a seasonally adjusted two per cent between January and February following a much larger decline of 17 per cent in the previous month.

However, the temporary increase in the lowest stamp duty threshold announced in last month’s Budget will mean that most first-time buyers do not pay the tax.

At £250,000, more than nine in ten first-time buyers would have been exempt from paying stamp duty in 2009 compared with just over one in two if the lowest threshold had been £125,000. The southern
regions of England will benefit most. Around three-quarters of first-time buyers in Greater London and the South East will be removed from the stamp duty tax net as a result of increasing the threshold from £125,000 to £250,000.

The September data from Land Registry’s House Price Index shows that house prices in England and Wales have increased with a monthly house price increase of 0.9% up from 0.5% in August.

In Pembrokeshire house prices increased by 1.2% in September. The average house price is now £148,698.

The average house price in England and Wales is now £158,377. This is an annual drop of -5.6%, up from a low of -16.3% in February.

London experienced the greatest monthly price rise with a movement of 1.3 per cent. The average property price in the capital is now £314,954. All regions experienced a decrease in their average property values over the last 12 months.

The region with the most significant annual price fall was the North East with a movement of -8.2 per cent. Neath Port Talbot experienced the greatest annual price fall with a drop of 18.7 per cent.

The most up-to-date figures available show that during July 2009 the number of completed house sales in England and Wales rose by 9 per cent to 57,579 from 52,628 in July 2008. Monthly sales in England and Wales have risen steadily each month since January 2009 when they stood at 26,662.