The average price of a house has topped £125,000 as estate agents predict another surge in the next few months.

Despite reports the market is cooling, the latest figures show the average price of a home in the South East has risen by more than 18 per cent during the last year.

Although sales increased in East and West Sussex, slightly fewer houses changed hands in Brighton and Hove as buyers adopted the wait-and-see approach.

The statistics are revealed in the latest quarterly residential property price report compiled by the Land Registry.

It compared house prices across the country in April to June this year with those recorded during the same period last year.

The average cost of a home in the South East, which has the highest prices outside London, rose from £108,450 to £128,719, an increase of 18.69 per cent.

The average price of a home in Brighton and Hove leaped from £88,553 to £115,653.

In East Sussex, the average cost of buying a house rose from £90,379 to £110,929 in a year, while prices increased from £104,483 to £131,095 in West Sussex.

The figures show fewer houses were sold in Brighton and Hove this year, with 1,747 sales going through compared to 1,796 last year.

In East Sussex, total sales rose marginally from 3,080 to 3,083 but sales increased more dramatically in West Sussex, where 4,294 houses were sold last year compared with 4,526 this year.

David Goldin, southern regional operations manager for estate agency Fox and Sons, said the Land Registry figures reflected the mood of the market.

He said: "Prices have risen over the past year but the market has slowed down compared with what was happening last year.

"The market ran away with itself but now it's returning to normal."

Mr Goldin said he believed the market would begin to pick up around September and October.

Nationally, the average price of a house in England and Wales rose from £90,068 last year to £103,115 this year, an increase of 14.49 per cent.