One of the main house price indices found that house prices fell last month – but the bank behind the study predicts that the dip will be short-lived.

Halifax said prices across the UK fell by 0.2 per cent in November, to an average of £204,552, the Financial Times reports. The consensus expectation had been for prices to edge up from their record level by around the same amount.

But the slip hardly amounts to a significant easing of the affordability crisis for many buyers. On an annual basis, compared with the same month last year, prices rose by nine per cent, treble the latest estimate for annual wage increases. And Halifax is adamant that "normal" service will resume, with prices heading upwards again early next year.

"Solid economic growth, rising real earnings and falls in already very low mortgage rates have combined to stimulate housing demand this year," Martin Ellis, Halifax housing economist, told the BBC. "The increasingly acute imbalance between supply and demand is causing prices to rise at a robust pace. A situation that is unlikely to reverse significantly in the short-term."

Halifax has previous said that prices could rise next year by between four and six per cent, as demand continues to outstrip supply. Growth rates have been easing as the need for hefty deposits lock more and more people out of property, but there is still seen to be enough call for the limited stock coming to market for prices to outpace wages.

Another analyst claims the pace of growth could be faster next year, at least in the early months. IHS Global Insight told the Evening Standard it expects increases of between six and seven per cent in 2016, as buy-to-let investors rush to secure purchases before a new stamp duty increase is introduced in April.

www.theweek.co.uk/