Average house prices across England and Wales ended last year at £177,766 – 7% higher than at the start of 2014.

The Land Registry says that prices went up 0.6% between November and December.

In London, house prices rose 1.8% on the month and 16.3% over the course of last year, bringing the average price of a London property to £464,936.

In all regions, house prices went up last year. However, on a monthly basis, there were falls of up to 1.6% in four regions – the east midlands, west midlands, south-west and north-west.

The Land Registry also reports a rise in property transactions. Its latest data, covering July to October, records an average monthly figure of 82,067, up from 75,201 average monthly transactions for the same period in 2013.

In October itself there were 80,158 transactions – 4% up from the 77,371 transactions of 2013.

However, the number of transactions in cheaper price brackets – under £200,000 – fell or, in the case of properties priced from £100,001 to £150,000, stayed the same.

In London, there was a 12% fall in transactions, down from 10,880 in October 2013 to 9,560 last October.