Housebuilder Bellway has reported higher prices and a surge in demand for houses.

The Newcastle-based group said it has seen average weekly reservations jump by nearly a third since the beginning of February, with 360 houses already reserved through the Help to Buy initiative since it launched in April.

Its average property value has also risen by 5 percent to £200,300 after achieving better-than-expected sale prices across some new sites in the South.

The figures provide the latest sign that the UK housing market is gathering momentum, with Halifax last week reporting the strongest annual increase in prices for more than two years in May, up 2.6 percent year-on-year to £166,898 on average.

Bellway said: "Wider accessibility to affordable, higher loan-to-value mortgages has led to visitor numbers and reservations being ahead of expectations and these have been further enhanced by an increase in the number of active sales outlets."