The Nationwide Building Society has reported that the price of a typical UK home edged up by 0.6% in February, taking the year on year rate of house price growth up to 0.9% from 0.6% in January.
The average, non-seasonally adjusted, price of a home is £162,712.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “Evidence that house prices picked up a little in February follows a series of data releases suggesting that economic conditions may not be quite as weak as feared after the UK economy contracted in the final quarter of 2011. Surveys of activity in the manufacturing and service sectors point to a rebound in January