British house price rise for fifth month

London: British house prices rose for a fifth month in September as a lack of homes for sale helped the property market to erase its losses of the past year, Nationwide Building Society said.

The average cost of a home increased 0.9% to £161,816 (€176,074), the mortgage lender said. Prices have dropped 13% since the October 2007 peak and are at a level last seen at the time of Lehman Brothers Holdings’s collapse last year.

The report adds to signs that Britain is pulling out of its worst economic slump in at least a generation as consumer confidence improves and mortgage approvals pick up.