HOMEOWNERS in and around Southampton have seen the value of their property rise by £21 a day over the past five years.

According to figures from building society Nationwide, the average price of a home in the port city is now £205,300.

That is up by roughly £81,000 since 2001, when the average price was £123,674.

Overall, homes have shot up in value by two-thirds over the past five years.

These days £205,000 typically buys you a two-bedroom apartment in Southampton or a three-bedroom semi-detached home in Chandler's Ford.

The report also spells yet more bad news for local people trying to get a foot on the elusive property ladder.

With the average salary for Southampton's 110,000 workers being under £23,000, they would be hard-pushed to get a 100 per cent mortgage with even the upper lending limit of four times their salary.

Around £88,000 would get them a one-bedroom flat in Old Redbridge, Southampton, or, slightly cheaper, a two-bedroom park home.

Homeowners in the Isle of Wight are the biggest winners in the property boom, says the report, with house prices almost doubling in five years and rising ten per cent over the last 12 months, compared to five per cent in the past year in Southampton.

At £232,140, the average Mid Hampshire home has risen 55 per cent since 2001, although growth has slowed last year to just over two per cent.

Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's group economist, said: "The price of a typical house in the outer south east region is now £192,808. This is an increase of over £7,500 in the last 12 months, equivalent to a rise of just under £21 per day which is exactly in line with the UK average daily growth rate."

Shaun Manzi, managing director of regional estate agents Austin & Wyatt and Mann & Co said the boom only affected certain price brackets because stamp duty increased at £250,000.

"Any property valued around the £220/230,000 mark will not have gone up as much because of the stamp duty threshold. It is a significant extra expense.

"We have a lot of people coming from the M27 corridor because the property prices are cheaper in Southampton and we are still getting a migration here from Surrey.

"At the moment there is no rhyme or reason why we have seen such an incredible increase but there's is definitely a feel-good factor out there."

Nationally house price growth is expected to slow in the coming weeks after two months of falling prices.

A report by the Halifax bank, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, suggested the slowdown was because people faced higher utility bills, rising unemployment, and worry about the prospect of interest rate rises.