British house prices increased by 3.5 per cent in the 12 months to April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday, slowing from the 4.1 per cent rise in March.

London was the region with the lowest annual growth, the ONS said, with prices in the capital up 2.4 per cent.

Recent measures of Britain’s housing market have indicated strain in the sector from higher mortgage rates as stubbornly high consumer price inflation has spurred markets’ bets for the Bank of England to increase borrowing costs for longer than expected.

Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, earlier this month said house prices dropped by 1.0 per cent year-on-year in May, the first annual decline since 2012. Rival Nationwide reported a 3.4 per cent annual fall in prices, the largest since 2009.