The average house price in the South West is now �178,500

It found that in the South West in 1997 the average house cost around �60,000, equivalent to nearly four times greater than the then average wage of �15,873.

But since then house prices have risen to an average of �178,500, while the average wage is now only �22,453.

In Cornwall prices have risen five and a half times faster than pay.

The near 200% rise in house prices means that it now takes just under eight years of a worker's wage to buy an average-priced house in the region.