The average property price in England and Wales grew £6,700 in the past year but would have been just £1,117 without the distortion of the London market.
The average UK house cost at the end of March stood at £230,078, the firm found.
Property in Chelsea continues to be the most expensive in the country with the average house costing £1,545,236. Prices in the City of Westminster grew 39.4% from £878,444 to £1,224,874 over the course of the last 12 months.
Outside of the capital, the area of the country with the biggest cost rises was Merthyr Tydfil. Prices in the Welsh town rose 8.8%, although the survey suggests low transactions in the area could have pushed the average higher than normal.
Cambridgeshire posted the next largest rise, with property values growing 8.1% in the last year due to the continued prosperity of the university.
Ceredigion was the area with the biggest price falls in the last 12 months, falling 13%. North East town Middlesbrough was the only other place to post a double digit fall, with property prices tumbling 10.8% in the same period.
David Brown, commercial director of LSL Property Services, said that more needed to be done to help first-time buyers in order to stimulate the market.
“The key to the recovery of the housing market is more mortgages for first time buyers. The Funding for Lending scheme has gone some way to doing that. It has eased the pressure on the market, allowing lenders to lower mortgage rates which have helped boost the first time buyer market. But it needs to be increased in scale if it is to have a more significant effect.
“Sadly, the improvements in mortgage availability, prices and sales have not been spread evenly across England and Wales. Big regional disparities remain. The market in the South East, particularly London, is going great guns, but less affluent areas are struggling.
“While the north is showing less resilience, having experienced the largest fall in house prices, areas in the South including Brighton, Surrey, Bristol and Cardiff have seen prices soar. The fast rate of growth seen in London has pushed the annual rise in England and Wales, to 3%. But take London out of the equation and price growth is just 0.5%.”
