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London - British house prices rose in October by the fastest annual pace for more than three years, a leading survey showed on Wednesday.
Prices jumped 6.9% annually last month, the strongest gain since May 2010, according to data from home-loans provider Halifax. That followed a 6.2% increase in September.
The bank added that house prices advanced by 0.7% in October from the previous month, taking the average cost of a home to £171 991 ($276 880). That was the ninth monthly price increase in a row.
Halifax - which is part of state-controlled Lloyds Banking Group - added that the market was boosted partly by government-backed schemes.
"Demand has increased this year, putting upward pressure on house prices and increasing levels of activity," said the group's housing economist Martin Ellis.
"Low interest rates, and higher consumer confidence supported by the increasing evidence that a sustainable economic recovery may now be underway, are helping to increase housing demand. Schemes, such as Funding for Lending and Help to Buy, also appear to have boosted demand."
However, the bank cautioned that house prices and sales remain below the levels reached in 2006/2007, before the global financial crisis.
Wednesday's survey data was meanwhile published one day before the latest interest rate decision from the Bank of England.
"The robust rise in house prices in October reported by the Halifax...will maintain mounting concern over the pace at which house prices are increasing," said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.
He added: "It is...of vital importance that policymakers closely monitor the situation and are prepared to act quickly and decisively if signs of the housing market overheating become increasingly widespread and pronounced."
