THE price of a detached home in Dorset has rocketed past the £200,000 barrier for the first time.

New figures in the Land Registry's quarterly review show the average price of a detached home shot up nearly 12 per cent to £205,066 in January-March - £21,000 more than in the same period last year.

And the soaring property market has also seen spectacular rises in the average price for other homes.

Semi-detached homes were up £17,500 to £129,817 while terraced homes rose £20,000 to an average of £109,820.

There was more gloom for first time buyers trying to get their foot on the property ladder with a flat or maisonette because the average price for those properties rose £18,500 to £93,272.

The registry added that Dorset house prices are rising so fast that the average price for a county property went up by over 15 per cent to £148,366, more than £20,000 higher than it was in the first quarter of 2001.

Weymouth estate agency Hull, Gregson & Hull senior partner Tony Gregson said: "The price increases have surprised me.

"They have risen much higher than I would have expected six months ago, but we cannot expect to keep house prices down if we don't release more green belt land.

"What is causing the price problem is a shortage of homes and very low interest rates which are making it very affordable to buy a house."

Dorset continues to outstrip most of the country on prices and its average cost for a detached home was nearly two per cent up on national figures which only rose 9.4 per cent to £187,835.

The biggest gap came with semi-detached homes which averaged £106,211 nationally, more than £23,000 lower than Dorset prices.

Terraced homes cost an average of £91,201 nationally - more than £17,000 less than in Dorset - while the overall average price for a home nationally was more than £26,000 cheaper than in Dorset.

Prices nationally rose 10.23 per cent for the first quarter of 2002 compared with 2001 but in Dorset the increase was half as much again at 15.65 per cent for the same period.