The house price boom in Sussex has slowed down.

Prices are still rising, but according to the latest figures, those in Brighton and Hove rose by half the national average.

The statistics from the Land Registry suggest the house price boom, which in the past ten years has seen prices rocket in Brighton and Hove faster than anywhere else in Britain, is over.

While house prices rose by an average of 16.27 per cent in England and Wales, they increased by 8.4 per cent in Brighton and Hove last year.

In East Sussex prices rose 11.3 per cent and in West Sussex there was an 11.1 per cent increase.

The biggest regional increase was in the price of detached properties in Brighton and Hove, which on average rose 13.4 per cent from £356,994 to £404,733.

Figures from the Land Registry are regarded as the most accurate because they are based on the registered price a property sells for.

Estate agents believe the next figures, due in February, will show a price fall.

Flats in West Sussex had the biggest price rise in the county. They went up from £120,879 to £140,863, an increase of 16.5 per cent.

Semi-detached properties in Brighton and Hove rose from £237,940 to £248,807, an increase of 4.5 per cent. Prices for flats and maisonettes in the city are also bottoming out. They rose from £152,772 to £163,019, an increase of 6.7 per cent. Terraced properties went up from £214,362 to £241,356, a rise of 12.6 per cent.

The price of detached houses in East Sussex, which includes the property hotspot of Hastings where values have soared over the past few years, rose 6.9 per cent from £291,253 to £311,391. Semi-detached houses rose 11.7 per cent from £174,887 to £195,318, and terraced houses rose from £149,921 to £167, 496, another 11.7 per cent rise.

Flats went up from £111,344 to £124,905, an increase of 11.3 per cent.

In West Sussex, the price of detached houses went up from £332,328 to £359,497, an increase of 8.2 per cent. Semi-detached houses rose by 13.6 per cent from £194,893 to £221,419. Terraced houses rose by 12 per cent from £163,094 to £182, 689 and flats and maisonettes rose by 16.5 per cent from £120,879 to £140,863.