LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - British house prices rose for a second month in a row in April, increasing by an annual 1.1% to an average of 281,000 pounds ($358,000) after a 0.9% rise in March, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.
The ONS's gauge of private-sector rents increased by 8.7% in the year to May, a slightly smaller pace of the rise seen in the 12 months to April when it rose 8.9%.
Britain's housing market has in recent months shown signs of recovery from the slowdown in late 2022 and 2023 which was spurred by the surge in mortgage rates.
But a fall in consumer price inflation has boosted household incomes and raised the prospect of interest rate cuts.
Official figure published earlier on Wednesday showed British consumer price inflation returned to the Bank of England's 2% target for the first time in nearly three years.
($1 = 0.7855 pounds)
Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by David Milliken
