- Truro has seen the largest rise in prices in the southwest in the past decade, despite Cornwall having the lowest average wage. A typical home in the city is now £267,320, some £66,400 above the average across the southwest and more than £80,000 above the national norm, says the Halifax/Bank of Scotland. The average price of a home in Truro has risen by £57,639 in just 12 months.

- Prices in central London are still soaring. Property Vision, an upmarket buying agency, says a Kensington house bought for £1.75m in 1998 has just sold for £4.35m. A nearby house marketed last month for £12m has just sold for well over that price after seven rival bids. The firm says 50% of its London buyers are from overseas, rising to 60% of those wanting homes for £4m or more.

- An estate agency says the long-term growth in prices is due partly to owners moving house less often, but being more willing to pay premium prices when they do. Cluttons says: “They assume a sizeable gain will result, irrespective of today’s price.” This is particularly true in central London, where buyers at the end of 2006 paid well over the asking price for many homes.

- Prices of city-centre flats across the UK rose by an average of 7.1% in 2006, after an increase of just 1% the previous year. Average yield from rented flats ended 2006 at 4.7%, says King Sturge, a property consultancy.

- Some 17,000 UK homes were repossessed last year because of mortgage payment defaulting, 65% up on 2005, says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). But the total is well below the level at the time of the last housing market crash in 1991, when 75,540 homes were repossessed. The CML also says the number of homeowners six months behind on their mortgage repayments has actually dropped 8.5%.

- The Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) says the gap between the number of new households created each year and the total of new homes built has risen to 50,000. This is despite a 20% rise in housebuilding levels since 2002. A report from the HBF claims that if this gap continues, there will be a cumulative shortfall of more than 1m homes by 2026.

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