Typical property price in February 'was over £160,000'

The average price of homes sold in the UK this month was just over £160,000, a lender has revealed.

According to Nationwide, houses and flats went for a typical sale price of £161,320 in February.

This was a decrease of one per cent on the previous month, with bad weather and the end of the stamp duty holiday cited as two factors which could have contributed to this.

On December 31st, the break on levies for homes worth under £175,000 was removed by the government and the previous cut-off point of £125,000 was restored.

The stamp duty holiday had been introduced by the government in order to stimulate the property market in the wake of the credit crunch.

Responding to the new figures, Nationwide's chief economist Martin Gahbauer said: "At this stage, it is difficult to gauge how much of the drop in housing activity is attributable to one-off factors."