House prices rose in September, Nationwide reported this morning. The average price of a home bought with a mortgage was £195,585, up from £195,279 in August.

Nationwide noted that the average London house price is now £443,399 – more than three and a half times the price of a typical property in the north of England.

Meanwhile, the number of mortgage approvals for house purchase rose for the third consecutive month in August, the Bank of England has reported.

Approvals for house purchase stood at 71,030 in August, compared to the average of 65,594 over the previous six months, and up from 69,010 in July

Remortgaging also continued to grow, with the number of approvals for remortgaging at 40,931, compared to the average of 35,811 over the previous six months.

Meanwhile, the Mortgage Advice Bureau said that in August, the number of mortgage products rose to over 15,000 for the first time since the recession. There were 15,838 mortgage products, up 10% from July, and the highest number since 2008.

Separately, using figures from across its own 200 branches, estate agent haart said that the average UK ‘sold subject to contact’ price in August was £219,315.

It said the average first-timer paid £169,259.

Both prices were up on last year, by 7.3% and 9.9% respectively.

Haart puts the average SSTC price in London during August at £507,096.

The agent also puts the ratio of buyer demand to property supply at 12.4 to 1.