Cost of average London property nears 500 000

Latest figures from the Land Registry show that house prices in London have gone up.

The average price of a home in the capital rose to £499,997 in September, the group says – and is set to continue rising.

In fact, prices have been rising consistently and it's expected that the next set of data will show that the typical value of a home in London will have reached the half-million mark during October.

And it's not just London where property values have gone up. The data reveals that across England and Wales, prices rose by 5.3 per cent in the year to September, with the average home now valued at £186,553.

According to the Centre for economics and Business research, one factor that is pushing up house prices is the lack of properties for sale.

In London, property prices saw the fastest annual rise – 9.6 per cent. The Land Registry said that values rose by 1.8 per cent between August and September.

Gap in regional prices

Although house prices are going up across England and Wales overall, there are some places where they are dropping. For example, in the north-east, house prices fell by 0.3 per cent compared to a year earlier. This pushed down the average price in the region to £99,559.

This means that the regional house price gap across England and Wales is £400,438.

Commenting on the Land Reigstry's data, Rob Weaver, directory at Property Partner, told the BBC that buying a property is becoming incresingly difficult for first-time buyers in London.

"That average prices in the capital are just a whisker off half a million pounds reinforces how buying in the capital has become a pipe dream for most first-time buyers," he said.

Looking forward, economist Howard Archer said that house prices were likely to see "pretty solid increases over the coming months," but explained that they would probably not "race ahead".

He told This is Money: "We expect house prices to rise by around six per cent in 2016 after a likely similar increase in 2015."