Last updated 09:04, Friday, 04 July 2008

House prices in Carlisle have risen despite experts saying the market has suffered its sharpest decline since the property crash of the early 90s.

The average value has gone up by three per cent to £153,512 over the last year, while home owners elsewhere are waving goodbye to thousands of pounds.

Prices across the north west region as a whole have gone down by more than five percent in the first quarter of 2008 to give an average value of £150,162, according to the Nationwide.

Only property in Cambridge, Canterbury and Oxford has fared better than Carlisle with a rise of four per cent.

The worst affected area is Sheffield, which has experienced a 17 per cent drop in prices.

But houses there are still worth almost £15,000 more than those in Carlisle and even though the city’s prices are rising, the increase is only just keeping up with inflation.

The news for Carlisle has been given a cautious welcome.

Cumberland Estate Agents managing director Nick Elgey says the market indicator to look out for is the number of properties sold rather than the amount of money involved in the transactions. He believes it is only when a drop in completions takes effect that house prices will start to go down.

Mr Elgey says the Land Registry has recorded a 40 per cent slump in Cumbrian sales for the first quarter of the year.

Adrian Tod, director of Hayward Tod estate agents, says the statistics do not reflect what is happening in Carlisle.

“Figures like this are generally confusing in that they go against what we are all experiencing. I don’t think there would be an estate agent in our region that would suggest prices have gone up by any amount in the last 12 months. The figures are based on a limited number of sales.”

Mr Tod feels Carlisle has benefited from a good market prior to the credit crunch, and the business prior to the Northern Rock crisis may have been enough to bring up the overall figures.

He says the next 12 months will give a clearer picture of the situation, as first-time buyers struggle to get mortgages from banks less willing to take a financial risk.

Mr Tod said: “If you have to sell you need to be realistic. If prices are realistic there are buyers out there.”