[LONDON] Asking prices for houses in England and Wales saw their smallest October rise since 2010 but competition for properties between first-time-buyers and buy-to-let-investors has fired up the market for smaller homes, property website Rightmove said.

Asking prices for homes across the market rose by 0.6 per cent in the month to mid-October, according to a survey published by Rightmove on Monday.

That was slower than a 0.9 per cent rise in the month to mid-September.

But asking prices for typical first-time-buyer properties, with two bedrooms or fewer, jumped by 4.9 per cent as high demand from both first-time buyers and investors looking to profit from soaring rents, combined with a shortage of smaller properties.

Over the year, first-time-buyer homes have risen by almost 10 per cent, far outstripping the overall annual rise of 5.6 per cent for all property types, Rightmove said.

Other surveys have shown house prices rising by between 4 and 9 per cent over the past year, pushed up by a shortage of homes available for sale. The government has said it will seek to spur more home-building through changes to planning rules.

"With local authorities, housing associations and developers no longer satisfying the country's housing needs, those in particular looking to rent or buy smaller homes must hope for the cavalry to come to their rescue, in the form of government action or large-scale institutional investment," Miles Shipside, Rightmove's housing market analyst, said.

The survey was conducted between Sept 13 and Oct 10.

REUTERS