There was a very small rise of £270 or 0.1% in the average price of properties sold in England & Wales during October, as compared with September.

That’s according to the latest LSL Property Services/Acadametrics England & Wales House Price Index.

The rise this month offsets the fall of £173 seen in the previous month. On an annual basis house prices have risen by 2.3%, an almost constant rate over the last three months.

“One of the main features of the housing market last month was the low number of transactions,” said Dr Peter Williams, chairman of Acadametrics.

“Our current estimate of the final number of September transactions is 53,125, which is the second lowest number of properties sold in the month of September since the Land Registry first computerised its records in 1995. The cause of the September slow- down in the housing market was the Olympics. Although this may have triggered a ‘feel-good’ factor, it also resulted in more people watching TV in August, with few property viewings and hence offers being made. This had a knock-on effect on the number of transactions completed in September.

“This month – October – has seen a ‘catch-up’ effect. Whereas on average there is usually a small increase of 2.0% in transactions between September and October, this year we estimate it will be +24.0%, with some 65,675 transactions in the month. If this estimate proves correct it will be the second highest level of monthly sales for over two years.

“However, we see this increase in sales as a one-off adjustment as opposed to a fundamental shift in demand resulting from an increase in mortgage availability.”