Average property prices are in danger of falling. Banks and building societies applied to the courts for 25,869 repossessions in the first quarter of the year, a jump of more than a third! This is the highest level since 1997, report The Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Over the past five years, repossession applications have on average stood at around 17,000 per quarter. However consecutive interest rate rise last year has left a fast-growing number of families struggling to repay their mortgages.

Of the total number of repossession applications in the first quarter, 14,048 were granted by the courts, compared with 11,888 in the last quarter of last year. However not all those orders will actually result in homes being repossessed.

Local reports suggest that buyer demand in Scotland remains strong and consequently house prices are holding steady - and may even be rising in many areas.

John MacRae, chairman of the Aberdeen Solicitors' Property Centre, says: "After September 2001, we had annual increases of between 13% and 16%. What has been happening in 2005 has been a slowdown in that growth.

"This has affected the upper end of the market in Aberdeen and surrounding areas. Although there is still a good demand, the rate of increase has slowed down to single figures." However, at the so-called bottom end, which MacRae defines as one and two-bedroom flats, prices are still surging ahead as they were this time last year.

Cheap as Chips.

Eight of the 10 cheapest places to buy a house in the UK are in the south Wales valleys according to new figures from mouseprice.com. The property website named Ferndale in the Rhondda Valleys as the cheapest town with an average home costing £29,693.

Other towns in the top 10 include New Tredegar, Treorchy, and Pentre.

The top 10 list of least expensive towns in the UK was based upon the average property selling price of towns in Land Registry figures since April 2000.

However, in the last five years, a housing boom has seen many areas double in price - which could explain why the housing figure for Ferndale is so low in the new figures released.

The Scottish property market continues to perform well according to a series of recent reports.

Clydesdale Bank reported that the number of people who are looking to buy this year jumped to 15% from just 7% in January.

Both the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC) and Halifax Bank of Scotland have calculated that house price rises in Edinburgh have eased to about 6%, closer to historic growth levels. The average price now stands at £159,779, according to the ESPC.

Steve Reid, general manager for retail banking at Clydesdale Bank, said: "The Scottish housing market has not been as volatile as the one south of the Border and the signs so far this year suggest we can continue to look forward to a more stable marketplace."

According to a recent survey compiled by Hometrack, prices have once again fallen for the 10th consecutive month. The market has begun to stabilise due to an increase in the number of buyers. However, a considerable oversupply of property still hangs over the market.

The amount of time it takes to sell a property remains stable at 7.4 weeks this month, but the average number of viewings per sale has decreased to 12.4 from 13.2.

The average price of a home as calculated by Hometrack is now £162,100, down from a peak of £167,700 in June last year.

Regionally, 14 counties reported price rises and 13 remained static. However, 31 saw prices fall.

The most improved areas were central London and the City (+0.6%), West Midlands (+0.6%), Dorset (+0.5%), north London (+0.3%) and Wiltshire (+0.3%).

The largest price falls were in Bedfordshire (-0.7%), Gloucestershire (-0.5%), Surrey (-0.4%), Oxfordshire (-0.4%) and east London (-0.4%).

John Wriglesworth, Hometrack's housing economist, said that the market remained in the doldrums at the moment because of the excess of supply over demand. But he predicted it would pick up after the election on May 5.