Nationwide

House price inflation for 2006 hit 10.5% after a fall in supply helped push prices up another 1.2% in December alone, reports Nationwide.

House prices are expected to climb 7% nationally next year on the back of strong gains in London, The Daily Telegraph reports the Nationwide as saying.

A typical British household pays more than £200,000 in indirect taxes over a lifetime, according to a report by Axa, says the Scotsman .

Nationwide saw profits rise by almost a third last year, helped by an increase in mortgage lending, according to the Daily Telegraph.

SmartMove has launched a new website which it says will give mortgage intermediaries access to underwritten adverse lending decisions for their clients within seconds.

Residential property in London is now worth over 50% more than the average UK house price, and the value of UK property has continued to climb by another 2.1% in the last quarter, according to Nationwide's latest house price index.

The government recently launched the Openmarket Homebuy scheme aimed at trying to get more key workers and potential first-time buyers onto the property ladder.

The Bank of England's monetary policy committee has frozen the base interest rate at 4.75% for the second successive month amid growing anticipation that it will most likely increase the rate in November.

House prices rose by 1% in September according to the latest figures from the Halifax, taking the annual rate of house price inflation to 8% - its lowest rate since April.

August's interest rate rise has done nothing to dampen house price inflation if the latest figures released by Nationwide Building Society are to be believed.