The introduction of Home Information Packs coupled with the highest interest rates for six years and a tightening in mortgage lending criteria are creating a housing market that is very difficult for policy makers to read, it has been claimed.

Miles Shipside, commercial director of property website Rightmove, made the claims as the company released figures which show house prices rebounded by 2.7% during September, more than wiping out the previous month's fall.

The company said the gain during the four weeks to October 6 was the strongest for six months and helped push the average price of a home in England and Wales up to £241,642.

But the group said despite the rebound, the market continues to show signs of a slowdown, with the less volatile three-month growth rate dropping to 0.5% for the three months to October 6, the lowest quarterly rise since the winter of 2005, and down from an increase of 1.5% during the previous three-month period.

Rightmove said the recent sharp price fluctuations, which saw prices dive by 2.6% during August, before rising by 2.7% in September, were largely due to the "distorting effect" of the Government's controversial Home Information Packs (Hips).

The packs, which aim to speed up the house buying process by giving people more of the information they need up front, were introduced on August 1 for homes with four or more bedrooms and September 10 for ones with three bedrooms.

The group said there had been a surge of three-bedroom properties coming on to the market in order to beat the September 10 deadline, as homes marketed before this date do not need one of the packs.

In the week before the deadline it claimed there was a 65% surge in the number of three-bedroom homes being put up for sale.

Mr Shipside said: "Legislative tinkering involving future cut-off dates has a history of unbalancing markets. In a stable market this presents fewer dangers, but in today's more sensitive financial environment the effects can be more exaggerated.

"It is very unfortunate timing that Hips and their side-effects are straddling a period of record house prices, the highest interest rates for six years and a tightening in mortgage lending criteria."

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