Britain's biggest property website, Right Move reports that the London property's asking prices jumped 6.5 per cent in the last month alone. Asking price for an average property was £395,000 only a month ago. Last mont this figure jumped to £416,000.

Some reports suggest that the news from the city that days of big bonuses are back has instilled new confidence in the depressed property market and has made sellers think that the buyers, mainly led by bankers, will be back looking to buy houses.

However these bonuses to be paid in deferred shares rather than hard cash does not seem to have flitered through the ranks. So the optimism that the propetry prices are back on the upward track may be a bit premature. 

Rest of UK

Right Move has also reported a 2.8 per cent increase in asking prices in rest of UK as well.  This fact that 16,808 properties were listed on the website to be sold whereas 19,890 were removed (presumed sold) gives an indication that there was more demand than suply for properties. This also makes sense considering an increasing trend of more mortgage applications being approved in the recent months.

However the total number of properties listed on the Right Move website are still almost 34 per cent lower than at the peak of property market in 2007.

Are Higher Prices to Stay?

It depends who to listen to. If you are an estate agent trying to sell a property, the answer is probably: yes, they are on the up.

Most independent researches however seem to be suggestung this is just a blip and the prices may either stagnate for a while or even come down a bit more. 

Last week Knight Frank reported that it expected prices to fall slightly next year, to stagnate the following year and to begin recovering properly in 2012. Savills has also predicted small price falls next year and full-scale recovery in 2014. But, according to Rightmove, only one in ten consumers believe that property prices will be lower this time next year.