House prices up by £18,000

House prices soared by an average of £18,000 in London over the past year, it is revealed today.

Figures compiled by the Land Registry show the average cost of a home in the capital is £214,000: nine per cent higher than 12 months ago.

The biggest annual increases were in Newham, where prices leapt 25 per cent owing to growing interest from investors buying property to let.

The second biggest rises of 24 per cent were in Waltham Forest, fuelled by home buyers unable to afford neighbouring Hackney, where prices rose by 20 per cent.

In Barnet prices were up 22 per cent while Croydon saw a 20 per cent rise and Greenwich and Harrow a 19 per cent increase.

The report comes a day after the Standard revealed how house prices in London are projected to increase by an average of 25.1 per cent by 2006.

Richard Everitt, from Winkworth estate agents in Stratford, said he expected the rapid price increases in Newham to continue. "Despite the recent increases prices are still relatively low here," he said.

"They are bound to rise again as amenities are added to the area in the wake of the transport improvements."-At the other end of the scale, average sale prices fell by one per cent in Merton and rose by only three per cent in Southwark and Wandsworth.

Estate agent Frank Harris, based in Southwark, said: "The area saw huge price rises in the last 18 to 24 months. This was caused by a lot of new and expensive riverside developments in an area previously dominated by council estates.

"Developers and buyers were also attracted by the Jubilee line extension offering a quick connection to central London. The market now appears to be settling down and the lower price rises can be seen as an adjustment rather than a reflection of anything wrong in the area."

The biggest rises in the first three months of 2002 were in Barnet (11 per cent), Hounslow (10 per cent), Greenwich (nine per cent) and Merton (eight per cent).

The number of sales rose by nine per cent compared with the period between January and March 2001, but there are still fewer than 10,000 house sales a month, well down on the late 1990s. Instead of leading the national league table, house prices grew more slowly in London than any other region, at nine per cent.

The biggest national rises were seen in East Anglia (20 per cent), the South West (18 per cent) and East Midlands (15 per cent). A spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said: "We are not surprised that price rises in London are now lagging behind the rest of the country as it was hit hardest by the 11 September attacks and global economic problems."

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