NEWPORT'S booming property market is creating a major housing crisis with first-time buyers now forced to look for homes outside the city.

A major shortfall in the amount of affordable housing in Newport has left people on an average wage about £40,000 short when it comes to buying a typical home.

And the massive increase in property prices in the city has seen one council house - in Routs View, Llanwern - selling for £125,000.

A new report by Newport council reveals first-time buyers on average incomes are only able to shop in the deprived areas of Bettws and Pill. For potential first-time buyers like Vicki Ashurst it has made it impossible to get on the property ladder in Newport.

The 25-year old graphic designer lives with her father in Allt-Yr-Yn and has been house hunting for over a year.

She said: "Anything I can afford I'm bidding against ten other people. "There's a lot of gazumping.

"The bank offered me a mortgage of £52,000 a year ago and I couldn't get anything.

"This has been increased to £63,000 - five times my salary - but because prices have gone up I'm still in the same situation." She added: "I'm now looking in Risca and Blackwood but it's no different there."

An average wage in Newport of £21,685 would attract a typical mortgage offer of £68,308.

A typical house in Newport last year cost £110,000, according to the Land Registry.

The Newport council draft housing strategy for 2004-09, stresses the urgent need for more affordable homes in the city.

Judith Askew, housing enabling manager at the council, said: "During the last 12 months Newport's house prices have increased ahead of national and regional trends.

"A first-time buyer on the average wage could only afford to buy a home in Bettws and Pill.

"Properties in these areas are predominately council or housing association, or are terraced properties in relatively poor condition."

Over the next five years, over 3,000 houses are needed to meet the housing shortage and Newport council says over a third of these should be affordable to first-time buyers.

The redevelopment of the east side of the city where 1,700 new homes are proposed is on and around the decommissioned area of Llanwern steelworks.

And proposals are being put forward by developers to build another 1,000 houses on land near Langstone.

The council is considering using legal agreements to force developers to include affordable homes in their plans.

Councillor Ron Jones, of the Pill ward, said: "We've got plenty of room here for starter homes.

"There's enough public housing. We need to get homes for younger people starting out."