British house price sees fastest annual rise in 4 years

British house prices increased by 9.9 percent annually in April, the highest annual rise since May 2010, official data showed on Tuesday.
The price surge was driven by rises in London, where the annual increase was 18.7 percent, said the Office for Natioanl Statistics (ONS).
The average British mix-adjusted house price in April was 260,000 pounds (441,000 U.S. dollars), while that was 485,000 pounds in London, according to the ONS.
The average price for properties bought by first-time buyers increased by 10.7 percent over the year to April 2014. For existing owners, it increased by 9.5 percent in the same period, it added.
George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had warned that housing market could pose a threat to financial stability in future.
"If London prices were to continue growing at these rates that would be too fast for comfort," he said.
The Chancellor had granted the Bank of England the right to cap the proportion of high loan to income mortgages each bank can lend, or ban all new lending above a specific loan to income ratio.