Cumbria housing market 'buoyant'

House prices in Cumbria's are continuing to rise despite prices in the south of the country starting to fall.

Latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors show prices for first time buyers in the county have risen by as much as 40%

Carlisle estate agent, Peter Hayward, said people are increasingly seeing property as a good investment as well as somewhere to live.

He said he could not envisage a crash in the near future.

Mr Hayward added: "They talk about a gentle landing which has more to do with the fact if buyers continue to push prices up by offering, inevitably there is a point reached where people's incomes no longer stretch.

"When that happens it will gradually slow down.

"I can imagine the south had overcooked and while we have low interest rates where else in the man and woman on the street expected to invest their money."