House price increases across Sussex have varied wildly during the past year, new figures reveal.

While homes in Hastings went up in value by almost 40 per cent, those in Littlehampton decreased for the first time in a decade.

The annual survey by Halifax Estate Agents compared average house prices in 613 UK towns and cities over 12 months.

The results in most of Sussex are the first clear signal that the property price increases enjoyed in recent years have come to an end.

The average increase countywide was about ten per cent but major centres like Brighton, Crawley, Haywards Heath and Bognor managed just small price rises and was positioned towards the bottom of the table of rank price increases.

Brighton came 577th, registering an increase of just 1.6 per cent. At the height of the property boom Brighton enjoyed 20 per cent increases for several years.

Littlehampton, where the average house value dropped by almost four per cent, was almost rock bottom at 606th in the table.

Hastings ranked 24th and recorded the highest increase in southern England.

Halifax said places with the strongest price growths in 2004, like Hastings, began the year with relatively low prices. Most were in Scotland or the north of England.

The year also saw a narrowing of the North/South divide.

At the end of 2003 the average property in the South cost 1.9 times as much as in the North but only 1.6 times as much by the end of 2004.

A report from Hometrack, which keeps a monthly watch on the prices of properties sold from estate agents' records, said on Monday house prices had dropped for the sixth month in a row, with buyers in Sussex experiencing one of the biggest falls in Britain.

It said prices fell nationally by 0.8 per cent this month but the fall in West Sussex of just over one per cent knocked more than £2,000 in a month off the average £230,000 price of a home in places like Chichester and Arundel.

One of the reasons for the fall was buyers negotiating discounts of seven per cent or more on asking prices.

Phil Graves, of estate agents Graves Jenkins, which has an office in Crawley, said: "This time of the year you normally expect a slowing down.

"There is no reason why there should be a fall in West Sussex greater than anywhere else but I think it must be linked to new developments, of which there have been several in Horsham, Arundel and Chichester.

"When they all come on the market at once, prices tend to go higher and then tail off. If we get a reduction in interest rates, then things will pick up again."