House prices rising

Fresh signs the housing market may be picking up once more emerged today as Britain's biggest mortgage lender said the number of people looking for a new home was on the rise.

Halifax Bank said competition for properties was hotting up and more buy- to- let investors were coming back as it showed that average house prices rose 1.3 per cent last month to £133,908.

The increase is below July's

1.4 per cent rise but keeps the annual increase in the average purchase price above 19 per cent.

Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis said: "Activity is on the increase following a lull when confidence was hit by the Iraq war." He said that average monthly increases over the past three months had been higher than for the past 20 years.

The figures come days after the biggest building society, Nationwide, upped its forecast.