House prices in Britain rose by the most since 2004 in the 12 months; leaping by 13% as better-off households defied the broader cost-of-living squeeze facing the rest of the country; mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday.

The pace of house price growth sped up from 10.7%, Halifax said. In monthly terms, prices rose by 1.8%, the biggest increase by that measure since 2007; after a 1.2% increase in May from April, the figures showed.

Property prices so far appear to have been largely insulated from the cost-of-living squeeze,” Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said.

Higher earners could probably use coronavirus pandemic savings to fund property purchases, Galley said in a statement.

-Reuters.