House prices in Britain show 5.7-percent annual increase in Feb.

House prices across Britain registered an annual increase of 5.8 percent in February, taking the average cost of buying a home to 217,502 pounds (270,072 U.S. dollars), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Tuesday.

London still has the most expensive homes, with an average price of 474,704 pounds, even though monthly house prices dropped almost one percent between January and February, said ONS. The annual price rise for Britain's capital is now 3.7 percent.

The average cost of owning a detached house in London has risen by 30,362 pounds in the past year to reach almost 895,000 pounds.

Average prices across Britain went up by a modest 0.6 percent between January and February, but there were regional variations.

House prices in Wales also fell by almost one percent between January and February, with the annual increase of 1.8 percent taking average house prices to 145,293 pounds.

In England the annual price increase of 6.3 percent has taken the average property value to 234,466 pounds. Monthly house prices have risen by 0.8 percent since January 2017.

Homes in the east of England recorded the highest annual increase, reaching 10.3 percent in February.

Further along the coast, in north east England have the cheapest homes, with an average price of 123,749 pounds.

The ONS report also shows that the number of house sales has fallen, with the number of completed house sales in London falling by 31.3 percent in December to 6,665 compared with 9,700 house sales in December 2015.

Official figures from the Land Registry also show the number of houses sold in England fell by 19 percent in December to 65,064 compared with 80,367 in the same month a year earlier. Endit