In the three months to November prices were 2.1% higher than in the previous three months.
Martin Ellis, housing economist, said: "Stronger demand combined with an insufficient increase in housing supply has resulted in increases in house prices accompanying higher activity this year.
“Low interest rates, improvements in consumer confidence and official schemes, such as Funding for Lending and Help to Buy, all appear to have boosted demand.”
But Ellis said the continuing pressures on household finances, as earnings fail to keep pace with consumer price inflation, are expected to remain a constraint on the rate of growth of house prices.
He added: “We are also seeing signs of a revival in house building which should help bring supply and demand into better balance and curb upward pressure on prices over the medium and longer terms."
On an annual basis house prices increased by 7.7% compared to the same three month period last year bringing the average house price to £174,910.
Despite the consistent recovery in the value of homes the average price still remains 12% below the peak of the market in August 2007.
Alexander Gosling, director of the online estate agents Housesimple.co.uk, said: “Britain’s economic recovery this year has been truly impressive and the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was laced with upbeat growth forecasts.
"But the assumption that house prices must inevitably continue to race upward is as dangerously misguided as ever.”
Home sales increased for the sixth successive month in October to 94,950; 24% higher than in October 2012.
The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases – a leading indicator of completed house sales – was 11% higher in the three months to October than in the previous quarter and 31% higher than in the same three months last year.
Private sector housing starts in England increased by 10% between the second and third quarters of 2013 to 26,380; the highest level since 2008 and 28% higher than in 2012 Quarter three.
