THE AVERAGE house price in Basingstoke for the third quarter of the year was £173,572, with an average of half-a-dozen viewers before a sale was clinched.

These are statistics from the register of The Right Move estate agency in the town, where director Mark Chubb said the average price achieved during the period was 97.5 per cent of the marketing figure.

But the days when first-time buyers stepped onto the bottom rung of the property ladder when still in their teens has gone.

Now, the average age of a first-time buyer has increased to 30-plus and the traditional one-bedroomed properties they bought have been snapped up by investment buyers looking to property for a pension fund.

First-time buyers are the foundation stone of the residential market and the good news was that more came out of the woodwork in the third quarter.

Mr Chubb said: "They are now coming in at the two and three-bedroomed rung - partly because they have to. In mid-November, we did not have a one-bedroomed property on the market. The cheapest was a one-bedroomed flat which was already under offer."

The same mid-November register of available homes saw The Right Move being able to offer only one property under £120,000 and four at less than £150,000.

Returning to the first-time buyer theme, Mr Chubb said: "They have to have established careers and good incomes to afford to buy, and most purchase as couples."

But, he said, a level playing field on prices for the second and third quarter of 2003 had seen first-timers coming off the fence as they realised the doom-and-gloom merchants' predicted price crash had not happened.

Mr Chubb added: "The best sales month of the year was July, when the market went back to normal after the Iraq war. Since July it's been a good, steady market.

"In Basingstoke we had a good even balance of properties coming on to the market and selling, which is unusual."

But now, as the shops stock up the shelves for the Christmas buying spree, stocks in the estate agents are starting to run low.

Most of today's applicants are looking to buy in the £150,000 to £250,000 price band. At £150,000 they will find a 25-to-30-year-old three-bedroomed terraced house or a modern two-bedroomed terraced property.

Most semi-detached house are now around £200,000, three-bedroomed detached homes are about £220,000, four-bedroomed detached properties start at around £250,000.

Mr Chubb believes it still makes good sense for sellers to market their properties. "They have the choice of the best buyers. If people are looking for houses instead of Christmas shopping, they're obviously serious."