London house prices seesaw

The traditional property hotspots of west London and the Home Counties have been overtaken by rising stars in the East, new figures showed today.

Upminster, in Essex, saw the biggest price rises in Greater London last year, with a 26 per cent increase bringing the average cost of a house in the town to £276,671. Bexley and Barking recorded rises of 18 and 19 per cent.

By contrast, prices in Twickenham actually fell by three per cent and in Isleworth, Chessington and Kingston, they rose by only between two and five per cent.

The latest figures from the Halifax indicate that London has finally reached a plateau after several years of dramatic increases. The average price of a home is now £257,194.

Godalming in Surrey, home to so many stars it became known as Celebrity Central, suffered the humiliation of a three per cent drop in prices to an average of £290,203 - experiencing with Harpenden, Herts, the biggest fall in the South-East.

Meanwhile, the village made famous as the home of David and Victoria Beckham saw the biggest property price rise in the south of England. Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire recorded an average rise of 39 per cent, suggesting the Beckham effect has even extended to properties neighbouring their £4.5 million home known as "Beckingham Palace".

The latest industry report shows the average cost of a house in the pretty mediaeval village to be £234,000.

Berkhamstead, also in Hertfordshire, saw the second highest average price rise in the South, with a 35 per cent rise in the cost of a home, to £348,354.

Faster-rising house prices north of Watford have gone some way towards narrowing the North/South divide. At the end of 2002 the average property in the South cost three times as much as in the North. This was reduced to 2.3 times as much in 2003, with the average property in the South at £223,460, compared to £94,373 in the North.

However, the 20 most expensive towns in which to live in the UK are still all in the South. The top three, Henley on Thames, Richmondupon-Thames and Weybridge, also topped the list a year ago. In Henley prices rose by a modest six per cent in 2003, bringing the average to £411,794.