HOUSE prices in Bournemouth and East Dorset are rising at more than twice the national average rate, figures have revealed.

Statistics just released for July show a 1.1 per cent increase to an average price of £249,145 in Bournemouth and a 1.6 per cent rise to £355,584 in East Dorset.

Prices are also rising in Poole with a 0.8 per cent increase to an average of £312,835

All three areas outperformed the 0.5 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Flats saw the biggest increase in prices in Bournemouth with an increase of 1.3 per cent to an average price of £179,378.

Detached properties in the town are now selling for an average £429,075, up 0.8 per cent, and semi-detached are up by 0.9 per cent to £278,975.

Terraced houses in Bournemouth are selling for an average of £230,289, up 1.1 per cent, and first time buyers are spending an average £202,850 to get on to the property ladder.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Bournemouth remained level, putting the area 25th among the South West’s 36 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in North Devon, where properties increased on average by 14.8 per cent, to £252,000.

At the other end of the scale, properties in West Dorset dropped 2.8 per cent in value, giving an average price of £280,000.

As usual, the highest property prices in the UK are in Kensington and Chelsea in London where the average July sale price was £1.3 million.

The sum could buy 15 properties in Burnley, one of the cheapest areas, where properties cost £84,000.

A survey released last week revealed that residents of Dock Lane in Beaulieu own homes worth an average £3,158,252, making it the fourth most expensive street outside of London.

The figure makes the New Forest location the fourth most expensive street to live on outside of London, narrowly beaten by roads in Rickmansworth, Leatherhead and Tunbridge Wells.

Dock Lane is a private road meandering alongside the Beaulieu River and is famed for what has been described as its ‘unrivalled waterside properties’.

As well as being close to the spot where the iconic film ‘A Man for All Seasons’ was filmed, the lane is also home to a property designed by the prestigious architect, Sir Basil Spence, who designed the new Coventry Cathedral.