House prices are going to be growing in the next few months according to experts. Some are even calling for a house price surge. There are signs that first time buyers are due to return to the housing market and with an increase in consumer confidence, as well as continued low interest rates from lenders, there is no reason to think other than a boom is coming to the UK housing market.

The Land Registry data showed a 0.9% increase in April which followed a 0.8% decrease in March. The average house price in England and Wales is £179,817. The annual rate of growth fell to a 14 month low of 5.1%, but it must be mentioned that last year was a particularly strong year of growth for the UK housing market.

The Land Registry data does not include new build homes, but rather change of ownership for existing properties.

Steven Bell, chief economist at fund managers F&C Investments, remarked on the expectations of growth in the housing market, saying, “This will confront the Bank of England with a dilemma: whether to raise base rates early, introduce further ‘macro prudential’ measures, or risk yet another house price boom. A strong housing market is both an indicator that financial conditions are too loose and a mechanism by which those loose conditions feed through into the rest of the economy.”

London, which has maintained a strong housing market even through the recession, had another annual growth rate in the double figures at 10.9%. The monthly increase rose to 2.3% for an average house price of in April of £474,544.

Homeowners are likely keeping an eye on the changes and forecasts for the market as it could signal the time to remortgage before lenders begin to pull their cheapest interest rate remortgage and mortgage deals.