The extent to which the London market has been skewing the residential sector has been underlined by analysis of the latest Land Registry data.

The September report said that average prices hit £177,299 across England and Wales in September – a monthly fall of 0.2%.

But removing Greater London, average prices are just £133,538 based on average transactions for the year to date.

Naomi Heaton, CEO of property investment firm London Central Portfolio which did the number crunching, said: “These figures suggest that housing stock outside Greater London is still affordable.

“The furore about a house price bubble over recent months has been totally unhelpful. It is simply not justified outside London and inhibits buying activity.”

LCP has projected that it will take another five years for prices to even catch up with their pre-credit crunch level.