Data from Land Registry and the ONS shows that the average house price in the UK reached £226,000 in November, a 5.1% year-on-year increase.

The increase was led by Cambridge, where values jumped 16.4%, and the West Midlands, where the average sold price was 7.2% up on a year earlier. The figures show that the London market remains sluggish, with a 2.4% increase in prices over the year representing the weakest price growth of all regions.

Despite this, the £482,000 average sale price means the capital remains the UK’s most expensive region. The lowest average price was in the North East, with a typical sale value of £128,000. Across the UK, England saw average prices climb 5.3% to £243,000, Wales’s average was up 4.5% to £153,000, Scotland saw typical values rise 3.6% to £146,000, and Northern Ireland’s average price of £132,000 marked a 6% increase.

On slowing growth in some regions, a property specialist said: “A reduced pace of price growth will no doubt be welcomed by those priced out of home ownership, but these slower market conditions aren’t enough to address the wider issue of affordability, or indeed the severe lack of housing stock.”