UK house price inflation steady in February

Asking prices on homes rose 2.3 per cent from mid-January to mid-February even as a flood of new properties came up for sale, property website Rightmove says.

The annual inflation rate was roughly steady at 11.1 per cent from 10.9 per cent in the prior period and 10 per cent a year ago. Rightmove's measure of house prices rose a similar 2.1 per cent in the same January-February period last year.

Rightmove said on yesterday the rise in asking prices - not on completed sales - came as "inexperienced estate agents, desperate from lack of sales commission since summer, fail to price realistically and gamble on continuation of market recovery."

"Some sellers and estate agents [are] unable to shake off ingrained spring boom mentality of recent years," it added.

There were 63 properties for sale per estate agent branch, up 31 per cent on a year ago, Rightmove said, while the 132,000 new properties listed on the market was the highest such monthly tally since the survey was first launched in 2002.

The Bank of England has left interest rates steady at 4.75 per cent for six months running after raising them five times between November 2003 and August, 2004 partly in a bid to cool the rampant British housing market.

The latest set of BoE inflation and growth forecasts suggest that rates may climb again later this year.