The increase recorded in the year to September marked an acceleration, after a rise of 5.5 per cent rise in the year to August, according to the Office for National Statistics. It was, however, well below the 12 per cent increase that was seen last year.

House prices are said to be rising at different rates according to the various indices, but all show that they are still accelerating ahead of wage increases and are hitting new records across the country as a whole.

But the national average masks wide variations across the UK. Property prices rose by 10.2 per cent in Northern Ireland, but just 1.1 per cent in Wales and Scotland. England recorded a rise of 6.4 per cent.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight told the Daily Mail he predicts further "solid" house price increases in the coming months. "We expect house prices to rise by around six per cent to seven per cent in 2016," he says

The latest official statistics come after a Rightmove report warned this week that at least 350,000 households will be locked out of the housing market by 2020 because of a lack of affordable homes (see below).

Yesterday a separate report from PricewaterhouseCoopers projected that by 2025 only around a quarter of 20-39 year olds in England would be owner occupiers, compared to around three quarters of over-55 year olds, the BBC reports.

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