THREE Oxfordshire towns were named as fast-selling property hotspots in a new report.

Didcot, Thame and Witney were highlighted in the survey by Bradford & Bingley estate agents network.

Homes in the Didcot and Thame areas sell in an average of two weeks.

The estate agents said they were beaten only by Watford and Bushey, where homes take only a week to sell.

In Witney homes take an average of three weeks to sell. The regional average is seven weeks.

This is a return to the level recorded last October by the company, which has been monitoring the time taken to find a buyer since August 1995.

Bradford & Bingley regional director Alan Gottschalk said: "We are experiencing a bottleneck, but no boom. The market is active with homes selling quickly but in general people are still nesting, not investing.

"We are not back to the boom-and-bust of the late 1980s, where the volume of homes on the market was at a record high."

Last week the Halifax said the average price of a semi-detached house in Oxfordshire had fallen slightly since the summer.

The average price in the third quarter was £124,650, down from £124,000 the previous quarter.

But Oxfordshire is still fifth in the Halifax house price league table, beaten only by Greater London, Surrey, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.

The booming house market spells inevitable rises in interest rates next spring, according to a leading group of Oxford economists.

Oxford Economic Forecasting predicts the Bank of England will be forced to raise rates if inflation targets are to be met.

Story date: Monday 25 October

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