The average price of a home rose 4.8 per cent in February compared with the same period last year, rising to £196,930, according to the mortgage lender Nationwide.
This was a bigger increase than the 4.4 per cent gain in January, although house prices remained steady over the month in February at 0.3 per cent.
The number of mortgage approvals, which lags house price growth, shot up to a two-year high of 74,581 in January, compared with 71,000 approvals in December, and the highest number since January 2014.
It is thought that the sharp growth in mortgage approvals is due to people rushing to secure a buy-to-let property or second home before the extra 3 per cent stamp duty on such purchases comes into effect in April, said Nationwide.
“This is likely to have brought forward a significant number of purchases, which in turn will probably result in a fall back in approvals during the spring/summer,” said Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide.
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However, a separate house price index from rival lender the Halifax showed house prices increasing 9.7 per cent in three months to February compared with a year ago, although month-on-month prices were down.
The Halifax said house prices were also up 3 per cent in three months to the end of February compared with the previous three months to December to an average price of £209,495.
“Prices continue to rise at a robust pace driven by a significant imbalance between supply and demand. Whilst this position is likely to continue over the coming months, there are some tentative signs that the supply situation may be beginning to improve,” said Martin Ellis, Halifax’s housing economist.
The monthly house price index from Nationwide, one of Britain’s biggest building societies, has shown house price growth to be significantly weaker than Halifax’s index over the past six months, leading economists to warn not to place too much emphasis on one particular house price survey or measure.
“Nationwide’s measure of house prices underplays the extent to which the housing market is heating up again,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
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“We still expect the strengthening labour market, falling mortgage rates and a dearth of homes for sale to result in punchy house price increases this year,” he added.
Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Economics, said: “The contrast between the Halifax and Nationwide data and the monthly volatility in the data highlight the importance of not pinning too much weight on one particular house price survey or measure, but to look at the overall picture.”
The figures from Nationwide also revealed that the rate of home ownership is showing signs of stabilising after steadily falling over the past 12 years. In England, home ownership in 2014 to 2015 stabilised at 63.6 per cent, after the government introduced measures to boost home ownership such as Help to Buy, however the total is still below the peak of 70.9 per cent in 2003.
There has also been a “particularly marked decline” in home ownership among 25 to 34 year olds, Mr Gardner said, which is traditionally the segment containing the most first time buyers.
The proportion of this age group who own a home has dropped to 37 per cent from just below 60 per cent ten years ago.
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Over the same period the proportion of people renting increased from 43 per cent to 63 per cent, while among 16 to 24-year-olds, this rose from 73 per cent to 92 per cent.
The increase has occurred in the private rental sector, Mr Gardner said, which currently houses 19 per cent of total households. “Over the past ten years, the number of privately rented households has increased by 75 per cent to 4.3 million.”
He added: “The latest English Housing Survey showed that the proportion of private renters who expect to buy a home at some point in the future declined by four percentage points from 61 per cent to 57 per cent - the lowest reading since the survey began in 2008/09. Even amongst those who expect to buy a home, for most this remains a longer term aspiration, with 75 per cent expecting it to take at least two years.”