Estate agents all over Oxford are smiling again, thanks to some official statistics out this week which confirmed what they could have already told us.

It’s official – house prices are rising faster than at any time since the financial downturn started in 2007.

A big chunk of it is being driven by Government schemes, designed to tempt more of us into buying our first place or moving up the property ladder.

In his spring Budget, Chancellor George Osborne launched the Help to Buy scheme which makes it possible to buy a new-build home with just a five per cent deposit.

Since it was launched, there have been 10,000 reservations for new homes, according to the Government, and the number of first-time buyers is at its highest for six years.

But we ain’t seen nothing yet, because in January, the scheme is being extended to all homes, not just new-build, worth up to £600,000.

Buyers will need only a small deposit and the Government will guarantee a chunk of the loan.

Those who already own their own pad will have help to trade-up to a bigger place, or move to another area.

It’ll also be open to people who want to invest in a second home, either as a holiday base or somewhere to let.

Before we start popping those champagne corks, though, like everything in life there could be a downside.

Experts are worried that all this Government meddling in the market is fuelling another housing boom and we all know what happened last time house prices went crazy.

There are plenty of people still recovering from the last housing crash and average credit card and personal levels of debt have stayed stubbornly high.

The other worry is that if prices continue to spiral, it will make it harder for young families and first-time buyers to jump on to the property ladder.

Even though through Help to Buy, buyers can put down just five per cent of the sale price, in somewhere like Oxford, that’s a lot of money.

According to latest figures from the Land Registry, the average price of a house in Oxfordshire is now £245,000, so even a five per cent deposit could cost £12,000 which is hardly small change.

The other trap to watch out for is that some of the headline mortgage rates being offered at the moment are incredibly enticing, for instance under two per cent.

But read the small print and you discover there’s a huge fee to take advantage of the rate and if it’s only a two-year fix, it might not be worth it.

Having said that, with interest rates so low, there are great deals to be had.

It’s just a case of trawling through price-comparison websites, or visiting a good mortgage broker, to find them.

The truly independent ones will probably charge a fee for their advice but at least you know that you’re more likely to come out smiling.