The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% month-on-month in April, leaving house prices 10.5% higher than a year earlier, according to the Nationwide.

The building society also calculates that over the lifetime of the last Parliament (May 2005 to April 2010), house prices have risen by 6.7%. This compares to a 13.5% increase in the consumer price index, the official target measure of inflation.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “April’s figures show the first double-digit annual growth in UK house prices since June 2007. The year-on-year rate in this month’s figures