The steady rise in house prices

Houses prices in Britain have kept on climbing, with some pundits pointing to a return of the London property bubble.

The latest housing market figures, from the Office for National Statistics, confirm the buoyancy seen in recent mortgage lenders' surveys. National average house-price inflation is running at 3.3%, the strongest in six months. London prices are climbing by 10% year-on-year, and prices are up by 43% from their 2009 trough. Outside London the rise has slowed to 1.3%. Meanwhile, the annual rate of consumer price inflation (CPI) edged down to 2.7% in August from 2.8% the month before. However, retail price inflation (RPI), which includes housing costs, rose from 3.1% to 3.3%.

What the commentators said

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