U.K. house prices posted the biggest gains in two years in September as confidence in the market improved, Hometrack Ltd. said.
The average cost of a home in England and Wales rose 0.2% from August to $248,000, the London property-research company said Monday. The increase, the biggest since June 2007, left house prices 5.6% lower than a year earlier, the smallest annual decline in a year.
The report adds to evidence that the housing market may be starting to level off after the credit squeeze ended a decade-long boom. There still is a risk that the recovery from recession will falter as unemployment continues to rise, Bank of England policymaker Kate Barker said last week.