HOUSE prices in Glasgow are growing more rapidly than any other part of the UK, according to figures released yesterday.

The city topped the Scotland-wide league table of house price rises, showing a 29% leap in the value of the average home in the year to July 31, as statistics released the same day showed values are going into reverse in England and Wales.

According to Rightmove, the property website company, only northern areas of England had shown any increase in prices over the five week period to mid-August, averaging only 0.9%.

Average monthly prices in England and Wales have dropped by 2%. At the same time, the rate of annual house price inflation fell for the first time in seven months south of the border, dropping from a 16-month high of 18% in July to 15.7% in August.

Northern Ireland has had only a 6.4% rise in house prices for the whole year to June, a sharp fall from the 13.8% increase to May.

Scotland's biggest city has become the UK hotspot, with annual house price growth going up from 26% at April 2004 to 29% on July 31.

According to the latest Lloyds TSB Scotland House Price Monitor, property values in previously booming Edinburgh increased by just 7% in the year, the smallest increase in Scotland. Dundee had an annual house price rise of 15% and Aberdeen values grew by 12%.

Outwith the main cities, prices were still showing strong growth in the year of between 22% and 24%.

While house prices in Glasgow are now going up by an average of 2.4% per month across the last year, the Rightmove data shows that property prices in prosperous areas of London such as Kensington and Chelsea, City of Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham have slumped by between 8.3% and 9.9%.

Lloyds TSB says the Scottish rises have been partly caused by a lack of supply of homes.

A recent executive review revealed up to 7000 affordable homes could be required in Scotland each year for the next 10 years to cope with demand. Developers are building or refurbishing 6000 affordable homes each year.

Large rises in land prices are known to have been caused by the shortage of available land with planning permission for building new homes.

Recent executive figures show that developers are having to pay on average (pounds) 1.37m for a hectare (about 2.5 acres) compared with (pounds) 540,000 in 1995.

Glasgow was the land price hotspot with prices leaping by 472% over the same period, compared with 160% in Edinburgh, 40% in Aberdeen, and just 1% in Dundee.

Other housing market analysts believe Scotland has been protected from the slump in England because it is still catching up with price rises that occurred earlier south of the border.

Scottish house prices have risen for the 14th consecutive quarter, averaging 20.7% for the year.