There was further evidence this morning that the UK housing market is picking up following the Bank of England's interest rate cut in August, a survey by HBOS PLC unit Halifax showed.Halifax found that UK house prices rose by 1.2 pct in November from October and rose by 4.5 pct year-on-year. The average seasonally-adjusted house price stands at 170,086 stg. "The high level of employment and good earnings growth continues to underpin housing demand," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis. However, the slowdown in UK economic growth over the past year, as well as the historically high level of house prices relative to average earnings are expected to curb the recent improvement in housing demand and will prevent another period of sustained sharp rises in property values, he said. In line with solid mortgage lending figures released by the Bank of England earlier this week, Halifax Estate Agents have seen a rise in sales in recent months with sales higher than a year earlier for the first time this year in October, Halifax said.