A Place in the Country? - That will cost you.....

Homes in the countryside have risen in value by almost £600 a month

in the past decade and are now worth £27,000 more than urban properties,

a new report says.

However, more localised figures for the Westcountry show even

steeper rises, with rural Devon properties up £740 per month and average

homes across Cornwall soaring by £798 since 2001.

Mortgage lender Halifax has found that rural homes shot up by £576 a

month in the ten years to 2011, to reach an average of £196,316.

By contrast, houses in urban areas saw an average jump of £519 a

month in the same period, to £169,353, according to its Rural Housing

Review.

Richard Copus, South West spokesman for the National Association

of Estate Agents, said second-home buyers financed by the boom of the

early 2000s had fuelled much of the rural surge.

However, he described the analysis as "potty" and said the Halifax was "playing with figures".

He added: "It is ridiculous to go back ten years because eight

years ago we had a big boom and since then prices dropped 20 per cent.

"It doesn't surprise me as it has been an English thing for years

to live in the countryside and commute, but the figures give a

misleading impression.

"The only thing [the data] shows is that, over the long term,

buying a house is a good investment but I think if we look again in five

years the growth will be negligible."

Halifax found that the South West is home to eight of the ten

priciest rural areas when compared with local earnings. Its report

picks out West Dorset as the least affordable rural area in Britain,

with houses costing £256,332 – eight times more than the local gross

average earnings of £31,992.

This was closely followed by Torridge at 7.8 times more, Mid Devon at 7.7 and North Devon at 7.6.

Cornwall occupied the eighth least-affordable spot, with homes costing seven times the average salary.

In percentage terms, house prices in larger towns and cities went

up by 58 per cent over the last ten years, while rural homes had a

slightly lower increase at 54 per cent.

Halifax said that, since the housing downturn in 2007, property

prices in the countryside have dropped by 22 per cent, compared with 23

per cent in built-up locations.