Although property prices in towns and cities such as London and Brighton have continued to increase in the past year, a new residential conveyancing survey shows that the prices of rural homes have nearly doubled in the past ten years.

According to Halifax, since 2000, the average cost of buying a house in the country has risen by 96% to £102,722. This compares with a 91% increase in urban prices in the same period.

Consequently, the affordability of rural homes has dropped with a standard home in a village or similar position costing 6.4 times average earnings whereas town-dwellers will pay 5.4 times average pay for their homes.

The slowdown in work for house purchase lawyers in the past two years has had less effect on homes in the countryside where the survey found they had lost only 20% of their pre-credit crunch value.

In comparison, despite certain parts of London being an exception, overall town and city home prices fell by a quarter in the same period.

Property sales solicitors in country areas will have seen relatively few transactions involving first-time buyers with only 27% of sales involving this group, compared with 45% in more built-up areas.

There is also less residential conveyancing involving social housing contracts, with only 13% of homes in non-urban areas defined in this category compared with 19% in towns.