Agency says average home in England and Wales is now £300,000

The market got off to a strong start in 2017 with prices growing 0.3 per cent in January to push the price of a typical homes in England and Wales up by £1,029 to reach £300,169.

This is according to Your Move.

This is almost £10,000 higher than in the same month in 2016, when the average was £291,165. Prices have now doubled since they topped £150,000 in November 2002 – despite the slump following the financial crisis.

Activity last month was also higher than usual for the time of year, with 60,000 transactions. This was lower than the 62,059 in January 2016, which also started strongly, but up by more than 2,000 on 2015.

A strong finish to 2016 means that London rises off the bottom of the regional league table for house price growth over 2016. Instead, the North East takes its place with prices dropping 0.3 per cent in December. 

Every other region of the country has seen prices grow in the last 12 months, led still by the East of England where the average price edged up a further 0.1 per cent in December - therefore some 7.1 per cent up on late 2015. Within the East region, Luton was up 10.1 per cent, Thurrock up 11 per cent and Southend-on-Sea up 14.7 per cent.

Other top performing regions included the South East, increasing 4.9 per cent annually with double digit growth in Medway and Portsmouth; and the East Midlands, where Rutland saw growth of 12.4 per cent over the year and the region as a whole increased by 4.5 per cent. 

The strongest annual growth in a unitary authority, however, was in Kingston upon Hull, 2017 City of Culture. Prices there grew 1.5 per cent in December to finish up 16.8 per cent on the year, with the average house price rising by £19,072 to £132,590.