Prime country house prices rose on average by almost one per cent in the third quarter of the year – the first overall increase in the Knight Frank Prime Country House Index since autumn 2007.

The increase was the greatest in the Home Counties (2.1 per cent) where prices have increased for the second quarter running. On an annual basis, average prices fell by 13.4 per cent in the 12 months to the end of Q3. Prices, however, are still 20 per cent below their Q3 2007 peak.

Andrew Shirley, Knight Frank’s head of rural property research commented, “The positive sentiment that we saw in the Home Counties market last quarter has now started to spread across the UK.”

The Knight Frank Prime Country House Index, says the average price of country houses rose by 0.8 per cent in Q3 ’09, against a decline of 0.9 per cent in Q2.