Shortage pushes house prices up

House prices soared by 3.2 per cent during February as a shortage of sellers left estate agents scrambling for business, research showed today.

The jump seen during the four weeks to February 6 was the biggest increase in asking prices for homes in England and Wales since April 2007, according to property website Rightmove.

It pushed the average cost of a home up to 229,398, 6.1 per cent higher than a year earlier.

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