According to a monthly survey from the Nationwide building society, house prices are still on the rise.  Prices went up by approximately 0.5% in May 2010, meaning that the price of the average home in the United Kingdom is nearly £170,000 which is about £15,000 more than this time last year.

The Nationwide went on to say that prices might keep on rising as very few properties were currently being put up for sale.

House prices in the UK have now gone up in 12 of the last 13 months.

The Nationwide’s report seems to be in line with other most other house price surveys across the UK.  One of the Nationwide’s main rivals, Halifax, has recently put annual house price inflation at nearly 7%.

The recent abolition that house sellers must provide a home information pack (Hip) to prospective buyers may also affect the market to some degree.  However, the Council of Mortgage Lenders disagreed with this and said it would merely bring a “modest reduction” in the total cost of selling a home.  The CML warned again that by far the biggest issue buyers and sellers are facing was the shortage of mortgage funds.

Bank of England data showed that mortgage lending in the UK rose by nearly £500 million in April, which was well under the £700 million expected by some economists.  The number of mortgages granted increased by 2 per-cent.

In other news it seems more and more people are struggling to pay their rent.   Rent arrears have doubled in the past two years, according to an in-depth survey.

34% of private landlords said that they have experienced arrears problems over the last year, compared with 16% during the third quarter of 2008.  Worst-hit are the landlords in the commuter belt of London’s suburbs and the east Midlands.

The good news is that landlords are thinking twice about raising rent due to the increased arrears.

Throughout January the UK housing market was frozen, although prices continued to rise, according to surveyors.

Due to the extreme weather conditions, buying and selling fell during the month , the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.

However the group expects an increase in activity in the coming months.

Many surveys have suggested that the housing market in the United Kingdom has begun to recover over the last six months.  The heavy snowfall we have experienced in the UK has led to many people working from home at the start of January and, unsurprisingly, led to a slowdown in people viewing homes.

The cold snap in January clearly has a huge impact upon both supply and demand in the housing market with activity coming to a halt amid the seasonal chaos,” said Ian Perry, of Rics.

“Activity and interest is likely to pick up in the coming months as the market experiences a Spring bounce.

In the month of January, 32% more surveyors reported a rise than a fall in house prices.  This was up from 30% in December.  This was driven in part by a shortage in supply of better quality homes on the market.

This could have a long-term effect on the housing market in the UK, as greater confidence of price rises could push more people intoselling their homes; possibly to cause prices to fall again.

“House prices are likely to rise in the short term but if more supply continues to come onto the market, it is possible that the market will run out of steam in the latter part of the year,” Mr Perry said.

The picture is different in specific areas of the UK, the Rics survey found. Prices were up in London, the South East of England and the South West of England area.  However, there were reports of price falls in Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside, and the North of England.

The number of surveyors predicting that house prices to rise increased in January from 12% to 24% while the number of surveyors expecting house sales to increase over the next three months rose from 7% to 24%.