Findaproperty.com’s new house price index suggests that house prices have remained stagnant at the bottom end of the market while strong rises in higher value properties are propping up the major indices.

Their figures collated from average asking prices on the website over the past month show high value properties climbing at 6.6% annually against a monthly rise of o.3% for first time buyer properties leaving them still down -4.6% year on year. This would appear to suggest that the difficult lending conditions for first time buyers are continuing to drag down property prices as second times buyers struggle to find a purchaser who can afford their property in the current market.

However there is good news in the bag too with average first time buyer affordability improving dramatically fuelled by the price reduction. Their figures for affordability gap or the average deposit required show a drop to £55,700 or 1.74 times gross household income against £71,000 or 2.8 times gross household income in January 2008.

Overall the indices showed a 0.2% rise on August figures leaving the average national asking price at £218,134.

You can see their results and the rest of the overview here Find a property.com’s September House Price Indices