Reuters 31.10.06

Sept England/Wales house prices up 1.3% mm-Land Registry

LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - House prices in England and Wales rose by 1.3 percent in September, according to a new survey compiled by Britain's Land Registry published for the first time on Tuesday.

The government agency's new index adds to the welter of surveys on house prices in Britain where movements in the cost of residential property are closely watched by policymakers.

The Land Registry survey is produced using the Repeat Sales Regression method in which house price growth is measured by observing properties that have been sold more than once.

"By using repeat transactions, differences in the quality of homes comprised in any monthly sample are greatly reduced," it said of its survey.

The average home in England and Wales cost 169,569 pounds in September, or 6.3 percent more than last year, the highest annual growth since June 2005, the government department said.

The Nationwide building society reported earlier on Tuesday that house prices in Britain rose 0.7 percent in October.

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