The cost of housing in six UK regions now exceeds their pre-recession peak.
The average house price in the UK has hit a new record high, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Prices have risen pretty consistently across the UK over the past year, 11.7% up to July 2014, taking the average price to £272,000.
As expected, the capital is a major driver of costs, with an annual increase of 19.1%. The average house price in London is currently at £514,000, the first time it’s been over £500,000 since the financial crisis.
However, it's not just London that's bumping up the average price of a home. Five other regions besides the capital (the East Midlands, West Midlands, South West, East and South East) are all now above the peak of 2007/8.
Things have got particularly tough for first-time buyers, who are now paying an incredible 13.5% more for property than in the same month last year. In comparison, owner-occupiers are paying 10.9% more.
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Can house price growth continue?
As always, supply and demand is the big factor here. We simply do not have enough homes. Experts claim that we need to build around 250,000 new properties a year in order to meet the demand, but in England last year we only hit half that number.
However, there are suggestions that this house price growth may start to slow a little. Rightmove suggests there is evidence that the "frenetic activity" of the first half of the year is cooling, due to tougher mortgage eligibility criteria and previously-pent up demand now being satisfied.
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More on housing:
Why 40% of property sales collapse