Whatever your house in Oxfordshire is worth now, it could be worth a quarter more in the next five years.

Despite recent interest rates rises - and possible future rises - a report from independent consumer magazine Your Mortgage, forecasts home prices will leap by 24.7 per cent.

The biggest increases are set to be in the Vale of White Horse and Cherwell districts, with house prices shooting up by 25.5 per cent by 2011, the report claims.

In South Oxfordshire, home prices could rise by 25.1 per cent and in West Oxfordshire by 24.5 per cent.

In Oxford city, prices are set to jump by 23.1 per cent.

Editor of the website yourmortgage.co.uk, Paula John, said demand for houses in Oxfordshire had shown no sign of slumping.

Mr John said: "Despite the recent rate rises leading to an increase in the cost of borrowing, demand for property in Oxfordshire has not abated.

"This demand is largely sustained by the increasing number of households in Oxfordshire, a result of growing numbers of single adult and pensioner households and migration from within the UK."

Prof John Muellbauer, of Nuffield College, who has made a study of house prices and their effect on the economy, claimed prices in Oxfordshire were pushed up by a variety of factors, one of the most significant being the effect of people in the City getting huge bonuses.

He added: "They force up prices in London, and Oxfordshire 'benefits' from the ripple effect outwards because it is an attractive county within commuting distance of London."

President-elect of the National Association of Estate Agents, Stewart Lilly, who lives in Harwell, said: "Prices go up because demand exceeds supply. Importantly, the Government imposes significant and unrealistic planning restrictions.

"The result is that only eight per cent of English land is built upon. And house prices continue to rise even though new build costs have probably only risen slightly in the past 10-15 years."