The housing market continued to show signs of recovery last month, but price growth for 2005 was the lowest for ten years.
Britain's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, said UK house prices rose by one per cent during the final month of the year.
But, despite this slight recovery, the average cost of a property rose by only 5.1 per cent last year, the lowest growth for ten years, and below the long-term annual average of eight per cent.
House prices in Scotland saw the biggest rise, up 14.8 per cent, followed by Northern Ireland at 14.1 per cent and the North at 9.1 per cent. Prices fell by 1.9 per cent in the South-West.
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