ESTATE agents are predicting house prices in York are to level out, after they increased by almost 31 per cent last year.

Figures released by HM Land Registry revealed that the actual selling prices for homes in York at the end of 2002 were almost 31 per cent higher than the previous year.

In the final quarter of last year the average cost of a house in York was £140,696. But a year earlier the average selling price was £107,457. The report shows that the biggest increase in price occurred with flats and maisonettes, which went up by 37.9 per cent, while terraced houses only rose by 22.8 per cent.

Detached houses rose by 31 per cent and semi-detached houses showed a 31.4 per cent rise in price.

In Selby and Tadcaster, the average house price rose by a massive 38 per cent from £90,471 in 2001 to £125,064 in 2002. The biggest increase in the Selby District was also in the price of flats and maisonettes, which rose by 67 per cent.

Ben Hudson, of estate agents Hudson Moody, said the York housing market was now levelling out.

He said: "Last year was absolutely spectacular in terms of rises. But it is levelling out now.

"I am not saying prices will fall. As long as people are sensible I think the property prices will hold."

He predicted the price of detached houses would continue to rise by between five and ten per cent over the next year.

James Winn, of Bairstow Eves' Low Petergate branch in York, said that many people from York now felt unable to afford to buy property in the city.

He said: "Local buyers are now priced out of the market. But York is still a popular location for people who are relocating from the south of England.

"Local buyers aren't prepared to pay as much as there are now more houses on the market. The market is definitely slowing down."

But he said people relocating from the south-east, where prices are generally higher than in York, was keeping the cost of housing in the city high.

Updated: 11:12 Tuesday, April 15, 2003