It found most activity in the north as a lack of supply squeezed home sales in the south.

However, there has been a southern resurgence in price growth, with the South East seeing the strongest year-on-year rise of any region and London recording its biggest monthly price boost since June 2014.

According to LSL, UK prices rose 0.4 per cent in September, and 4.2 per cent annually, with the average property now costing £284,742. The figure is £11,500 up year-on-year, after 42 months of annual growth.

Adrian Gill, director of Reeds Rains and Your Move estate agents, said the growth was primarily underpinned by sturdy demand and solid activity from first-time buyers at the bottom of the property ladder.

“The most frequently paid property price across England and Wales is just £125,000, mirroring the level at which Stamp Duty becomes payable, and reflecting the impetus that has been injected in the first-time buyer market recently.

“It is also the lower to mid-range properties priced between £180,000 and £360,000 which are seeing the fastest increases in value, while the shift in Stamp Duty bands continues to slow growth at the higher end of the market, and prices above £600,000 are largely stationary.”

Gill added that property prices have surged again in London, after slightly slowing following annual growth of 19.2 per cent to September 2014. He pointed out that the more affordably priced London boroughs are behind this renaissance, as the strengthening of sterling, rising Stamp Duty rates and moves against non-doms take their toll on the high-end market.

Barking and Dagenham, the borough with the cheapest prices in the capital, recorded the fastest year-on-year increase in property values at 15.7 per cent.

“This is the strongest September for home sales since 2007, escaping the recession shadow and completely defying the seasonal trend. Monthly sales have totalled 84,000, an increase of 3% from August, and making September only the second month this year in which sales have overtaken 2014 levels,” said Gill. “The regional spread of home sales reads like a traditional tale of north/south divide – with cheaper northern regions experiencing the fastest growth in property sales, while a shortage of property stock on the market in the south is slowing activity.”