Lisa Bachelor

guardian.co.uk

Household finances might be in the doldrums but property prices still managed to creep up by 1% in 2011, according to the latest figures from the Nationwide.

The building society said that, while prices had dropped by 0.2% in December, over the year the value of the average house has risen to £165,798.

Meanwhile separate data from the Land Registry showed house prices in England and Wales increased by 0.3% in November, but were down by 1.9% year-on-year. Its index, which is based on completed transactions, put the average price of a property at £160,780.

"The 1% rise in house prices recorded over the past 12 months could hardly be described as a strong performance, but against a backdrop of anaemic economic growth and a deteriorating labour market, UK house prices were surprisingly resilient in 2011," Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said.

"Resilience was less evident in other areas of housing market activity in 2011. For example, the number of mortgage approvals remained low, at just over half the long-term average." Full Article ...

Nationwide figures show a surprising rise in house prices over the year. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images