Nationwide Building Society has released figures which show that residential property prices have increased for a fifth consecutive month to September, with values at comparable levels to 12 months ago.

With the +0.9% increase in September, property prices have now risen by +3.8% over the last three months, and are +4.1% higher than at the start of the year, making it the first month since March 2008 in which house price inflation has not been negative. However they are still -13.5% below their peak of October 2007.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwides chief economist, said: “Given that the housing market still faces considerable headwinds in the form of high unemployment, restrictive credit conditions and an impending withdrawal of the stamp duty holiday, it would be surprising to see house prices continuing to increase at the very strong rate seen in recent months’

All house price information is derived using Nationwide’s mortgage data.