House prices in East Anglia are increasing far faster than anywhere else in the country, according to figures released today.

While most regions experienced the expected summer dip, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire saw prices carry on rising – having now gone up 7.6% in the past year.

The average home now costs £236,371, an increase of £17,000 on last summer.

Prices rose 3.1% last month and apart from the West Midlands, East Anglia was the only place to see growth.

Estate agents say the biggest problem they are facing is that demand is outstripping supply and more homes are needed for sale, especially with phase two of the government’s Help to Buy scheme starting soon.

Housing market analyst Miles Shipside, a director of Rightmove, said: “A holiday season price dip is the norm in August, with an average drop in the last five years of over 2%.

“Even with this month’s below-par 1.8% fall, the national average asking price is still up by more than £20,000 so far in 2013.

“Demand is already on the up, and that’s before the roll-out of phase two of the Help to Buy stimulus.

“It is now critical that the supply of property improves so that the goal of a significant increase in transaction numbers is not over-shadowed by an unsustainable boom in property prices.”