Britain's house prices rose by 1.7 percent in 2012, with London still leading the country posing an annual surge of 8.4 percent last year, said the house price index report issued by the Land Registry on Tuesday

The Land Registry, a government agency responsible for registration of land and property ownership in England and Wales, said the average price of property rose by 0.8 percent in December compared with the previous month, bringing the average price to 162,080 percent in the two regions.

House prices in London experienced the strongest monthly growth of 3.1 percent in December compared with the previous month, and a surge of 8.4 percent year on year.

The average price of property in this capital city reached 371,223 pounds, a sharp comparison with the average in England and Wales of 162,080 pounds.

The region with the greatest annual price fall is the North West reporting a fall of 3.5 percent.

In early January, Halifax House Price Index report showed that house prices in Britain increased by 1.3 percent in December last year, featuring the whole year with six monthly rises and six decreases.

The average price of house stood at 163,845 pounds in the last month of 2012, compared with 161,795 pounds in the previous month and 159,629 pounds in the same period 2011.

At the same time, the country's Nationwide Building Society said the house prices registered little changes in the last month of 2011 to drop merely 0.1 percent and declined by 1 percent for the whole 2012.

Figures from the Land Registry are based on actual sales, whereas the Nationwide and the Halifax base their surveys on their own mortgage approvals. Endi

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