House prices across England and Wales will surpass 2008’s national peak in the next 12 months.

The forecast was made this week by three economists at a “property boom or bust” event organised by think tank the Economic Research Council.

Grainne Gilmore of Knight Frank, Matthew Pointon of Capital Economics, and James Wyatt of Parenthia, said they expected house prices to rise 8% over the next 12 months.

Their figures included London, where they forecast house price rises to slow to 11.5% over the next 12 months. However, they predicted continued further annual growth of 10%, with the average London property costing £544,000 by 2019.

By contrast, they did not expect house prices in the north-east to reach 2007’s average house price peak in the region of £127,000 until 2019. If they are correct, if means the recovery will have taken 12 years.