House prices 'over £100,000 everywhere'

Every single town in the UK has average house prices above £100,000, according to new figures released by one mortgage lender.

The Halifax House Price Index showed that for the first time ever every one of the 489 towns surveyed had an average house price above the £100,000 milestone.

Five years ago more than 200 towns still had average prices below the £100,000 price mark, but last year there was only one: Lochgelly in Fife.

However, by the first quarter of 2007, the average house price in the Scottish town had reached £104,738.

But, while prices keep climbing, there is evidence of a slight slowdown.

Martin Ellis, the chief economist at Halifax said: "House prices continue to rise in a tight market but there are emerging signs that pressure on householders’ finances, partly due to the rise in interest rates since last August, is dampening housing demand."

Meanwhile, the Bank of Scotland has revealed that house price inflation in Scotland is more than double the UK average. These figures have seen the gap in house prices narrow slightly, with houses in London worth 2.1 times as much now compared with three times more in 2003.