Wales tops house price rise list

House prices in some parts of Wales have soared

Wales has seen the UK's biggest house price increases in 12 months, with prices up by 57% in some areas, according to a new survey.

Four of the top 10 counties which experienced the biggest gains were in Wales, Halifax mortgage lenders found.

Gwynedd prices rose by 57% and in the former county of West Glamorgan by 56%, while the former counties of Mid Glamorgan and Dyfed both saw rises above 30%.

The Bank of England's April meeting left interest rates unchanged at 4%, despite fears of a house price bubble.

Interest rates up soon?

Economists said given the galloping house prices and surging consumer debt, a rate rise to moderate the boom was being delayed but not cancelled.

UK HOUSE PRICE RISES - TOP 10 COUNTIES Click here to see the winners

At the start of 2004, major lenders were predicting house price rises this year of between 4% and 9%.

But there are signs that prices may be rising faster; the Nationwide building society has already raised its 2004 forecast to 15%.

All the other counties that were among the 10 with the highest rises in the 12 months to March were in the north of England and Scotland, the Halifax survey found.

UK HOUSE PRICE RISES - BOTTOM 10 COUNTIES Click here to see the losers

In each of these areas the average house price rose above £100,000 for the first time.

Nine out of the 10 counties with the slowest growth were in the south of England. Shropshire in the West Midlands was the only exception.

Prices in Berkshire, Essex and Avon rose by just 3%, while in Hampshire, Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire the cost of a home was just 4% higher than it had been a year earlier.

The authors of the report say higher interest rates and the increasing difficulties for first-time buyers will cool the housing market during the rest of the year.

Costly Surrey

County Durham, Cumbria and Cleveland, all in the north of England, also made it into the top 10, with prices in Cumbria soaring by 46%, while Dumfries and Galloway and the highlands in Scotland, and north Humberside also reported strong gains.

Halifax said the 10 counties which saw the biggest rises during the year all had average home prices of below £100,000 just 12 months ago, although they had all overtaken the threshold by March this year.

All the counties which saw the smallest increases, with the exception of Norfolk, had average values of at least £150,000 a year ago.

Surrey - which saw prices rise by 15% during the year - remains the most expensive county in the UK to buy a home with prices averaging £339,772 during the first quarter of 2004. It is the only county where the average property costs more than £300,000.

In Oxfordshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Essex and Dorset the average cost of a home is now between £200,000 and £300,000.

House price rises continue unabated

Fife in Scotland and County Tyrone in Ireland remain the only counties in the UK where the average property costs less than £100,000, with prices of £96,294 and £93,493 respectively.

Martin Ellis, chief economist with the Halifax, said the north/south house price divide was clearly reflected at a county level.

"The most expensive counties overwhelmingly remain in the south of England, but it has been counties in northern England and Wales that have seen the biggest house price gains over the past year," he said.

"We expect the trend of stronger price rises outside southern England to continue during the remainder of 2004, but prices are likely to rise at a slower pace in these regions than over the past year as higher interest rates and the increasing difficulties faced by potential first-time buyers begin to bite."

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