The year-on-year increase reflected growth of 2.8% in England, which was offset by declines in Scotland and Northern Ireland of 1.0 and 11.9% respectively.
House prices remained unchanged in Wales. Annual house price increases in England were driven by a 6.5% rise in London, and increases in the South West and South East of 2.3 and 2.2% respectively.
The only decrease in England was of 1.3% in the North East. On a seasonally adjusted basis, UK house prices increased by 0.5% between May and June.
Prices of new houses rose by 5.9% during the 12 months to June 2012, while the price of pre-owned houses increased by 2.1% in the same period.
In June 2012, prices paid by first-time buyers were 3.1% higher on average than in June 2011.
For existing home owners prices increased by 2.1% for the same period. Ashley Alexander, director of estate agency website MeetMyAgent.co.uk said that while house prices appear to be reasonably stable, there are still underlying concerns.
“Economic instability, high unemployment and strict mortgage lending criteria continue to be a barrier to sustained price growth, and consumer confidence remains fragile.
“One possible light at the end of the tunnel is the government’s funding for lending scheme which appears to have started feeding through to the mortgage market, with lenders offering cheaper products and crucially more deals at higher loan to values. This should inject some much needed activity into the property market, particularly amongst first time buyers who have struggled to raise large enough deposits.”
