PROPERTY prices in St Albans have risen by nearly 80 per cent in just four years and the district's good schools are partly to blame says an estate agent.

An average property in the area is now worth more than a quarter of a million pounds.

Latest statistics from the Land Registry show property prices rose by £116,000 in that time to stand at an average of £264,000.

But St Albans-based estate agents Martin Treasure and Strutt and Parker says the figures are not the complete truth.

Mr Treasure said the market in St Albans was now re-adjusting after a period of intense growth but added that the district's estate agents are continuing to reap the benefits of the so-called "school effect."

He said: "The introduction of the school league tables was very good for the property market because people are obviously very keen to educate their children at good schools."

Mr Treasure said: "These sorts of figures don't convey the diversity of the property market. They can tell you what the market has done but not what it's doing."

"An average price tells you very little really. It's a useful relative term but that's about it."

He added: "I think the market locally is in a state of returning to some kind of normality and prices are unlikely to go up until earnings start catching up.

"The property market is linked to consumer confidence and so the recent stock market wobble has not helped things but it would be a huge exaggeration to compare the situation to the crash in 1990."

Strutt and Parker's Jonathan Allden said the rash of press headlines on house prices spiralling out of control failed to do justice to the true situation.

"These headlines are encouraging overheating in the market which is far from desirable in a fragile marketplace.

"Vendors see these reports and then won't reduce the asking price on what are often over-priced properties.

"Across the country there are some very active hot-spots but the situation is much tougher closer to London.

"Giving a single figure for the whole of the UK is a very broad generalisation."

December 9, 2002 16:00