House prices rise for first time in two years, says Hometrack

House prices have risen for the first time in two years according to research from Hometrack, an independent housing research company.

The 0.1% increase seen in August marked the first time prices had gone up since July 2007 and followed three months of no price change. Year-on-year the drop was 6.7%.

However, Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s director of research, believes the rise should not be taken as evidence of any “green shoots of recovery.”

"Beneath the headlines, the results of the latest survey show that far from a national housing market on the up, the headline figures are being skewed by price rises that are restricted to relatively small pockets of the market suffering from a lack of housing for sale – primarily in London and the South-east,” he said.

The Hometrack survey of 6,000 agents and surveyors, showed that price increases in August were limited to just 11% of the country, with London and the South-east making up three-quarters of the areas reporting price rises. Prices were static across the remaining 89% of the country.