House prices are surging across Richmond at a faster rate than the rest of the country with an average rise of more than £85,000 over the past year.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) put the average house sale price for the entire borough at £775,371 in January, which compares to £689,780 a year ago

The average annual increase for January was 12.4%, which compares with an average of 9.4% for England and just 2.2% for London.

The Richmond borough has come top of a number of measures looking at quality of life, health and education, making it a popular choice for families.

However, high house prices mean it is it particularly difficult for young people raised in the area to get a foot on the property ladder.

The ONS figures show that sale prices for flats and maisonettes rose by an average of 8.9per cent in Richmond over the past year, which compares to just 0.2per cent as an average for London.

As a result, the average sale price for flats rose by about £40,000 to £510,552.

Looking at bigger properties, the average sale price for terraced houses is up by 14.8per cent or more than £100,00 to £900,096

And the average sale price of a detached property leapt by 15.4per cent in the past year with the cash figure up by over £220,000 to £1,683,719.

This suggests that detached properties were increasing by an average of around £18,300 a month over a 12 month period.

One of the factors driving up prices has been a shortage of properties, particularly bigger family homes.

According to Zoopla, among the few detached properties currently available at around the average sale figure is a 4 bed house in Bainbridge Close, Ham, at £1.6m.