The asking price for houses moved up last month but property is taking far longer to sell, according to new figures out today.

Homes are lingering on the market for 93 days, 15 days longer than last year, and agents have an average of 64 properties on their books, up from 54 last February, according to Rightmove, the property website.

The company's latest survey for the month to February 9 shows that asking prices rose 3.2 per cent to £237,856. The rise, averaging £7,428, pushed the annual rate of growth up to 5.8 per cent, from 3.4 per cent in January.

However, Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said: “It's not the start of another price boom, but the interest rate cuts have no doubt given some sellers headier hopes.”

Rightmove believes that the rise in asking prices, a traditional feature in the February market, has been compounded by estate agents “eager to have fresh property on their books” giving ambitious valuations to win business. The higher asking prices might explain why the record number of browsers on Rightmove's website - visitor numbers are up 22 per cent a year - are not being translated into sales.

Home information packs (Hips), which became compulsory for all properties from December 14, continue to cast a shadow over the market. Rightmove says that fewer one and two-bedroom properties are for sale after the market was flooded with them as owners sought to avoid the deadline for compulsory Hips. It said that the glut had contributed to the 3.2 per cent fall in asking prices recorded in December and the preponderance of larger, pricier homes was now boosting the average asking price.

The owners of small homes have had less time to adjust to the new requirement to have a home information pack, and so less motivated sellers are likely to be put off by the need to pay for the pack of legal and property information, Rightmove says. Hips typically cost £350 or more, depending on the size of the house.

“Without the Hip effect, average rises in asking price would have been between 1.5 and 2 per cent, more in line with the traditional February bounce,” Mr Shipside said.

Rightmove tracks the asking price of homes on its website and claims to cover 90 per cent of the UK housing market through estate agents across the country using its site.

Because it records the asking prices, and not the eventual sales prices, its average house value is £53,387 higher than the £184,469 recorded by the Land Registry.

In London, the average house price listed on the site in the past month rose 0.9 per cent to breach the £400,000 barrier. The figure now stands at £402,233, but Rightmove says that this was the lowest percentage rise for February in five years as concerns about tighter budgets for staff in the City restrained seller and agent confidence.

Falls in asking prices were recorded in unexpected locations: Kensington and Chelsea dropped 4.2 per cent and Islington fell 0.9 per cent.

Prices in both locations soared last year.

Charles Puxlet, of Jackson-Stops & Staff in Chelsea, said: “There are plenty of investors waiting to snap up any bargains. Having said that, there is a distinct slowdown in inquiries from casual buyers who have no real interest to purchase.”

The highest risers in the past month included the West London areas of Hammersmith and Fulham. Wandsworth prices went up 3.5 per cent and those in Ealing by 3.3 per cent.