Average home up £7,000 this year

The price of average British home leapt by more than £7,000 in the first half of this year to hit £270,674.

That is a rise of 2.7% since January, while prices rose fastest in Scotland at 6.6% to an average of £183,230, according to property website Zoopla.

But London is slowing, with prices up just 2.5% to an average of £599,162, a rise of £14,385.

Cheaper areas such as the North West and North East played catch-up by growing 3.1% and 3% respectively.

The average property in the North West now costs £171,977, and £176,390 in the North East.

Property values rose across all regions of the UK in the first half of the year, although at vastly different rates.

Wales was the worst-performing region for property price increases over the first half of 2015 with an average rise of only 1%, or £1,584.

Yorkshire was home to three of the ten worst-performing cities for house price growth in the first half with Rotherham topping the list, where home values fell 2.1% or £2,752.

Wolverhampton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Middlesbrough also saw a modest drop in average houses over the period.

Lawrence Hall of Zoopla said: “While national property price growth saw a slow start to the first half of the year, it recovered strongly.

“The strong regional figures across the board indicate an economy which is returning to health, with a series of Government incentives designed to encourage home-buying helping to boost demand for property in all parts of Britain.”

Hall said Scotland was the real winner. “The surge in property values can, in part, be explained as a post-referendum bounce, as businesses and capital flood back to Scotland, after withholding investment during the volatile September referendum period.

“A post-election feel-good factor must not be discounted as more devolution promised has given property prices a bounce as Scots anticipate more jobs and investment coming their way.”