Hamptons International – part of Countrywide – this morning significantly hiked its forecast for house price inflation this year, but at the same time warned that the pace of growth is softening.

Last autumn, Hamptons forecast 6% house price inflation for this year. This morning, that figure was upped to 8.5%.

It raised its forecast from 7% to 8% for the south of England.

But for London it more than doubled all of its forecasts.

For Greater London, last autumn it predicted inflation of 7%. This is now 15.5%. For central London, it predicted 8% inflation. This is now 18%. And in prime central London, its 3% forecast is replaced with one of 10%.

For 2015, Hamptons is forecasting 5.5% annual house price inflation for England and Wales and suggesting that house prices will rise in London by up to 7.5% depending on area.

Hamptons did not overtly say that its previous forecasts for this year were wrong – only that house prices had risen “a little more” than it had first thought.

Fionnuala Earley, director of residential research at Hamptons, said: “The rate of house price growth so far in 2014 has been a little higher than expected.

“Prices have been driven largely by London and the south-east, but a change in sentiment over the rate of future price growth has affected the whole of the country and we expect that to result in a moderation in house price growth next year.”

Pictured is the new-look Preston Bennett, the north London agent recently acquired by Countrywide. The branding makes much of Hamptons, which says it is part of its “strategic plan to expand its UK network, with a goal of reaching 100 branches by 2017”.