House price rises in the Tendring area were among the biggest in the country during 2003.

New figures released by some of the country's biggest mortgage lenders say the district has seen dramatic increases in the cost of homes.

But estate agents in Tendring disagreed with the findings, saying prices evened out.

The Nationwide building society said the average cost of homes shot up by 49 per cent, making the district the sixth-fastest growing property market in the UK and the 360th most expensive place to live.

Harwich was also named as one of the winners in the property market by mortgage experts, Halifax Estate Agents.

According to the banking group, the port town was the housing hot-spot of East Anglia.

The Halifax carried out a national survey, which showed Harwich had an average house price increase of 27 per cent.

It means that on average a house there typically cost £151,326 in 2003, compared with £119,438 the year before.

But Mark Cooper, a partner at Harwich and Village Estate Agents, in Dovercourt, said the survey's results were too ambitious.

He said: "I can believe a 27 per cent increase in 2002, but not in 2003. We saw prices rise by about five or six per cent and the market flattened out a lot."

Published Friday January 2, 2004

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