LONDON - British house prices rose by 0.1% in September from August, figures from mortgage lender Nationwide showed on Thursday.

House prices this month were 10.0% higher than in September 2020.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to rise by a monthly 0.6% and to be 10.7% higher than a year earlier.

"Annual house price growth remained in double digits for the fifth month in a row in September, though there was a modest slowdown to 10.0%, from 11.0% in August," Nationwide's chief economist Robert Gardner said.

Demand for housing has been strong in Britain since shortly after the lifting of the first coronavirus lockdown measures in the spring of 2020, boosted by demand for bigger properties as more people work from home and by a tax incentive offered by finance minister Rishi Sunak.

House prices in September remained about 13% higher than before the pandemic began in early 2020, Nationwide said.

The tax incentive was halved in scale on July 1 for home-buyers in England and Northern Ireland and is due to expire completely at the end of this month. Similar tax breaks in Scotland and Wales have already ended.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and William Schomberg; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) ((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))