St. Peter Port, Guernsey -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/28/2010 -- New figures to be released this week will show that house prices have risen by nearly 10 per cent in the last year.

Prices have been boosted by the seasonal spring rush, low interest rates, affordable property prices and the strong evidence that the banks are, once again, actually lending.

Figures will show that house prices rose 0.5 per cent month-on-month in April, moving the year-on-year increase up to 9.8 per cent, according to think-tank Global Insight. This is almost a full percentage point up on March.

“Spring is finally here, bringing with it a much needed boost to the housing market.” commented Stuart Pike of online finance broker Loan Arrangers (http://www.loan-arrangers.co.uk). If there is now confidence amongst sellers, and a growing confidence in the marketplace in general, more lenders will feed off that confidence, making a wider range products available to borrowers, which in turn will underpin the much needed recovery. Hopefully, these figures show that this recovery is well underway.”

The British Bankers Association expects to report today that mortgage approvals rose to 39,000 in March from 35,276 in February. 64 percent of London surveyors reporting rises over the last three months.

Concerns over the forthcoming General Election may be holding back some sellers in anticipation of what the election result may bring. The public seems to be getting more and more nervous of the outcome as a weak hung parliament could spell disaster for the economic recovery. It will be interesting to see if the buoyant mood remains once the election result is known.