A GWENT county is most expensive place in Wales to buy a house, a new survey released today shows.

The Land Registry survey says that Monmouthshire is now the most expensive place in Wales to buy a property, with an average house price of £164,320, followed by the Vale of Glamorgan at £148,358.

Traditionally, the Vale has been the most expensive area of Wales in which to buy a home.

The new figures also reveal that prices across Wales have soared by 24.6 per cent during 2003.

The Land Registry is the organisation that records all property deals in Britain, and it says that the average house price in Wales now stands at £111,272.

This compares with a rise of 7.8 per cent in Greater London and 9.2 per cent in the South East during the same period.

In the last quarter of 2003 alone, Welsh house prices rose by 4.5 per cent - followed by Yorkshire at a rise of 3.2 per cent.

Blaenau Gwent remains the cheapest place to buy a home with property costing an average of £50,585, although this figure shows an increase on the £41,529 cost in the final part of 2002 for a home in the Blaenau Gwent area.

House prices in Newport averaged at £121,294 and in Torfaen were at £106,615.

Although many people in Monmouthshire will be delighted at the hike in the value of their home, Monmouthshire councillor Pam Birchall said: "This news of Monmouthshire prices is very sad news for the first time buyers and for young people."

Councillor Graham Powell, a councillor for Caldicot, said he thought the figures in Monmouthshire have been high for a long time.

He said: "This is evidence that people want to come and live in Monmouthshire.

"The prices show the county's popularity and it seems to me that the county, by its own nature, is somewhere where people want to come and live because it is a very nice county."