House prices have hit a new record high less than two months into 2016, according to a property website.

Rightmove said that new seller asking prices have increased by 2.9 per cent, or £8,324, in February, pushing the average new seller asking price in England and Wales to £299,287.

“The new year’s market has hit the ground running in many locations, continuing last year’s momentum and resulting in the price of property coming to the market hitting a new high,” said Miles Shipside, Rightmove director.

The previous record high was set in October 2015.

Rightmove said that the supply of new homes was improving.

There was a 5 per cent increase in the number of new properties coming to market compared with the previous year. 

The supply of homes for first time buyers was most improved, up nearly 10 per cent in February.

But supply is patchy by region. Just four regions have more property than the 5 per cent average coming to markets, including London, South East, South West and Yorkshire.

In the West Midlands, supply has actually decreased, making it harder for buyers to find a suitable home.

“January has seen a huge jump in demand that has surpassed the normal seasonal increase,” Robert Scott-Lee, managing director of Chancellors in Surrey, Bucks, Oxfordshire & Berkshire, said.

“Undoubtedly, this is partly fuelled by investors looking to take advantage of a quick purchase before the tax change in April, and sellers looking to secure a sale to an investor who is panic buying,” Scott-Lee added.

The Mayfair penthouse that sold for £30 million (December 2015)

A Mayfair penthouse on Albemarle Street, one of Mayfair's oldest roads, sold to a mystery buyer for £30 million in December. The 5,845 sq ft, three-bedroom family home is thought to be one of the most expensive properties sold in the capital this year, and comes with an annual service charge of £61,000.

supplied by Estate agent Peter Wetherell

The dilapidated pre-fab 'shed' sold for nearly £1 million (November 2015)

A pre-fabricated bungalow in south-east London has sold at auction for just under £1 million. The 1950s property in Peckham comes with 0.6 acres of land, is in need of renovation and has no fitted bathroom, but still sold for £950,000. A guide price of £590,000 was initially set, but increased rapidly during the bidding.

Google Maps

The starter home flats that went for a combined £60 million (November 2015)

Some 215 “affordable” starter homes, specifically designed for first time buyers, sold out in just three hours in November, after dozens of aspiring homeowners camped overnight and queued in bad weather to get their hands on the flats. The starter home flats at Trinity Square by Galliard Homes went for a combined £60 million, or an average of £700 per sq ft. Londoners looking for affordable housing did not hesitate to camp out for up to two days to snag a flat, despite the fact that the project will not be complete for another two years.

Galliard

The longest lateral flat where H.G wells hosted a book club: yours for £3.65m (November 2015)

The 2,200 square foot apartment in Chiltern Court in Marylebone was also home to author Arnold Bennett and political cartoonist David Low. Now on the market for £3.65 million through Rokstone agency, the four-bedroom flat has been refurbished into a luxury apartment, providing an exceptional 40 meter window frontage and depth. It claims to be the longest and most outstanding lateral flat - ones that stretch the full width of a building, or sometimes across two buildings - currently for sale in London’s West End.

Rokstone

Gatti House: the flats with celebrity links and private "pizza" lift that sold for a collective £16.5 million (October 2015)

Celebrity links, a famous history and a private “pizza lift” has helped set a new record for price per square foot for a block of flats in central London. The four flats have sold for a collective £16.5 million at Gatti House on London’s Strand. Gatti House, a magnificent grade II building built in 1867, was sold as four separate apartments priced from £2.95 million to £5.95 million by CBRE Residential and Beauchamp, which has completed the last remaining sale.

CBRE Residential and Beauchamp

London’s most expensive office (October 2015)

A newly refurbished office in the heart of Mayfair measuring 6,000 sq ft was unveiled by Enstar Capital in October. At £500 per sq ft, it is set to be the most expensive commercial fit out ever undertaken in the West End, according to the developer. The workspace on 54 Brooks Mews features gold-plated executive washrooms inspired by Armani-hotel in Italy, timber flooring imported from a 16th century monastery in Tuscany and an Art Deco entrance restored with a new “54” entrance logo replicating Steve Rubell’s famous “studio 54” nightclub logo from the seventies. While the director’s floor include a rooftop terrace dressed with loungers and an outside meeting and dining table

Enstar Capital

Former garage in Mayfair become world’s most expensive mews house at £24m in Mayfair (September 2015)

In September, the world’s most expensive mews house, in Reevews Mews, sold to a Qatari buyer for an eye-watering £24 million.

A penthouse where you canoe from your front door, yours for £16.95 million (September 2015)

London luxury dockside complex located on Chelsea creek is due for completion by the end of 2016. But its luxury flats are already on sale including this penthouse yours for £16.95 million. It’s future residents will be able to slip down the river for a work out on the water at anytime of the day.

The only property in London too expensive for the city’s super-rich property buyers (July 2015)

A 45 bed-room mansion near Hyde Park, previously owned by a Saudi Prince, received a private bid for £280 million. If accepted this would have made the property he most expensive single home ever to be sold in Britain. It was originally listed with an asking price of £300 million –more than double the price of the UK’s second most expensive home