House prices lifted to a new record high of £202,436 on average in April after a burst of housing market activity, an index has found.

Property values edged up by 0.2% month on month across the UK and by 4.9% annually, Nationwide Building Society said.

Estate agents had reported buy-to-let investors rushing to beat a stamp duty deadline on April 1 which saw the cost of the tax hiked by three percentage points for people buying second homes.

There have also been reports that this freed up some house-sellers to trade up, pushing up house prices higher up the property chain.

House price growth has slowed down slightly, however, compared with March, when property values increased by 0.7% month on month and by 5.7% annually.

Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner said: "This slowdown returns the annual pace of house price growth to the fairly narrow range between 3% and 5% that had been prevailing since the summer of 2015.

"It may be that the surge in house purchase activity resulting from the increase in stamp duty on second homes from April 1 provided a temporary boost to prices in March.

"However, it is possible that the recent pattern of strong employment growth, rising real earnings, low borrowing costs and constrained supply will tilt the demand/supply balance in favour of sellers and exert upward pressure on price growth once again in the quarters ahead."

He continued: "Cash purchasers have become a more significant part of the market since the financial crisis, accounting for around 35% of all transactions since 2008, compared with around 25% in 2006/7.