House price average tops £100k

AVERAGE house prices rose above £100,000 in every county in the UK for the first time last year, new figures show.

In its latest annual county house-price survey, the Halifax reported prices rose faster than anywhere else in the Northern Ireland county of Fermanagh, increasing by 39% to an average of £111,187 last year.

The cheapest property was to be found in County Tyrone (£102,959), also in Northern Ireland, while the most expensive average was in Surrey (£345,485).

The 12 most expensive counties in the UK were all in the south of England and each had an average house price of more than £200,000. No county in northern England had an average house price above £200,000, highlighting the North-South divide.

The Highland region in Scotland experienced the second largest rise in prices in 2004, with a 37% gain, followed by West Glamorgan (34%) and Gwynedd (33%) in Wales.

The 20 counties with the biggest price increases in 2004 were all in the north of England (nine), Scotland (six), Wales (three) and Northern Ireland (two), mirroring the results of the 2003 survey, when all 20 counties recording the largest price rises were outside southern England and the Midlands.

Six of the 10 counties recording the biggest price increases in 2004 had an average price of below £100,000 in 2003 and were among the 14 least expensive counties in 2003.

County Down in Northern Ireland experienced the smallest price gain in 2004 (6%). Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (both 7%) in England recorded the next smallest rises.

Fifteen of the 20 counties with the smallest price increases in 2004 were in southern England. This was also very similar to 2003 when 14 of the 20 counties recording the smallest price rises were in southern England.

There was a clear tendency for the most expensive counties in most regions in 2003 to record the smallest house price increases in 2004.

The three counties with the lowest average house prices in the UK were County Londonderry (£105,839), County Armagh (£104,819) and County Tyrone (£102,959). The least expensive county on the British mainland was Fife in Scotland (£107,919).

Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Halifax, said: 'The housing market across the country has slowed significantly over the past six months as affordability considerations have begun to bite'

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