The UK property market was robust in September as buyers shrugged off the quarter point rate hike in August, Nationwide, the country's biggest building society reported. House prices increased by 1.3 pct in September from the previous month, bringing the annual rate to 8.2 pct. Analysts polled by AFX News had predicted much smaller increases of 0.4 pct and 7.0 pct respectively. The latest monthly rise is the biggest since January 2006 and the annual increase is the biggest since February 2005. Commenting on the figures, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Group Economist, said: "A weak patch this time last year, when prices fell by 0.2 pct, exaggerates the annual increase, but the more recent three-month-on-three-month series still shows a clear pick up in price growth since July." The average UK house now costs 169,413 stg almost 13,000 stg more than at this time last year and the equivalent of a rise of more than 35 stg per day over the last 12 months. Earley said demand in the housing market seems firm but that supply was short. Buy-to-let landlord demand looks to remain strong for some time to come, she added. "We expect interest rates to be increased again in November, but there is little chance that mortgage rates will increase to 7 pct as a result. However, increases in interest rates do affect expectations about future house price growth and hence house purchase decisions," Earley said.