Mandy Bradley, a director of propertyforecasts.co.uk, is confident property values generally will continue to rise but has picked out a number of places that could see a huge rise in prices.

Llanidloes, a little market town in the north west of Powys, is set alongside Wandsworth and South Woodford in London, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, Newark in Nottinghamshire and Ellesmere Port in Merseyside, as a place where people will see the biggest return on their property investment.

She says: “It’s inevitable that average prices will go up because there is such a shortage of available properties. There was a period in late 2004 when everything went flat, but it has been rising since the middle of 2005.

“There will obviously be some places where prices won’t rise but on average the trend is definitely upwards.”

The Llanidloes forecast has received mixed reactions from residents. Town clerk Sonia Pritchard said she felt it wasn’t all good news and wondered whether in fact it would turn out to be true.

“We have good schools in Llanidloes, which attracts people, but the major thing at the moment is the fact that our health service is in jeopardy.

“How house prices will be affected if we are left without a hospital will remain to be seen,” she said.

She added that the town had a shortage of affordable housing.

“Houses are already too expensive. . . if prices go up more they will just be totally out of reach,” she said.