British house prices increases by 10.2% in June

British house prices increased by 10.2 percent in the year to June 2014, down from 10.4 percent in the year to May 2014, said the Office for National Statistics Tuesday.
According to statistics, London is leading the house prices growth of the country.
House price annual inflation was 10.7 percent in England, of which London's property price increased by 19.3 percent, followed by the South East (9.7 percent) and the East (7.9 percent), said the ONS.
The average house price in the capital is now around half a million pounds, or 499,176 pounds (about 833,623 U.S. dollars), compared with the national average of 264,889 pounds.
Excluding London and the South East, however, British house prices grew by 6.3 percent in the 12 months to June 2014.
Annual inflation of house price was 3.5 percent in Scotland and 4.9 percent in Northern Ireland, data showed.
In June, prices paid by first-time buyers were 12 percent higher on average than in June 2013. For the exiting owners, prices grew by 9.5 percent for the same period, figures also showed. (1 pound=1.67 U.S. dollars)