To get on the housing ladder, try taking the lift to the 15th floor

The average home in Britain cost £96,000 in 1999, according to the Halifax House Price Index. Since then, another £100,000 has been added to that figure, meaning first-time buyers have a mountain to climb.

Part of the steep price rise is down to low interest rates fuelling demand. But Helen Adams, director of property advice website FirstRungNow.com, says buy-to-let investors have also stoked up the market by homing in when one- and two-bed properties become available. "This has led to the persistent rise in prices at the lower end of the market."

First-timers have been offered some lifelines. The threshold at which stamp duty becomes payable at 1 per cent was doubled from £60,000 of a property's value to £120,000 in the 2005 Budget. In 2006, it was nudged up again to £125,000. But in many parts of the UK, certainly in London and the South-east, properties in this price bracket can be almost impossible to come by.

According to recent figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), only 3 per cent of homebuyers in London can avoid paying stamp duty.

All over the country, it's getting harder and harder to find homes priced below this threshold. Statistics from the CML for April 2005 show that 17,600 loans were issued to first-time buyers for properties costing £125,000 or less, accounting for 56 per cent of total first-time loans. By April this year, this number had decreased to 12,100 and 42 per cent.

However, there are still openings, especially for those buying in the north of England. In the Durham town of Barnard Castle, for example, estate agent Addisons has several starter homes available for £100,000 or less - though they go pretty quickly, says Nicola Fawell, one of the company's negotiators. "They are usually two-up, two-down homes and need a complete redecoration. Often the vendor is an older person who has lived there all their life without doing a thing to it.

"But as the location is still desirable, they are also sometimes bought as second homes by people who holiday here."

In Birmingham, estate agent Connells is marketing one- and two-bed homes in a new city-centre apartment block called The Brolly Works. Prices start at just £99,950 and half have been sold already.

"Although the apartments may be reasonably priced, they are nothing like the identical, modern 'little boxes' you might expect for this sort of money," says Donna Smith at a Connells branch in Birmingham.

Move down to London and you won't find much outside the stamp duty bracket - though all is not lost. A quick search on property website Rightmove. co.uk throws up some one-bed homes in north London in this price region. Most are ex-local authority, however, and located above shops or in tower blocks - all of which will put off most high-street mortgage lenders.

From its Finsbury Park branch, estate agent Ludlow Thompson is marketing a one-bed home on the Six Acres housing estate for £99,995. Its senior negotiator, Mads Dal, explains the catch: "This property is made of prefab concrete, which is very hard to raise finance on, and you'll need at least a 35 per cent deposit."

Cousins Estates is also marketing a one-bed flat in Tottenham for £99,995. "However, it is on the 15th floor of a 17-storey tower block," says negotiator Elsa Brown. "Plus it's on the Broadwater Farm estate, which is best known for the 1985 riots.

"Usually, you can't get anything around here for that price. The average for a one-bed flat is £180,000 and I sold one last week for £230,000."

Even if you do find a £125,000 home you like, Ray Boulger of broker John Charcol warns that the smaller the mortgage, the more significant the upfront charges. "It's not uncommon to find arrangement fees of £1,500, and this would be far too a big a chunk on a loan this size."

Similarly, if you are borrowing 95 per cent or more of the property's value, you should choose a provider that does not levy a higher lending charge (HLC), such as Nationwide, Woolwich or Northern Rock.

Six to view

£125,000

Zander Road, Calne, Wiltshire.

Two-double-bedroom maisonette.

£125,000

Peel Green Road, Eccles, Lancashire.

Three-bed semi-detached property.

£122,500

Carlisle Road, Chester.

Three-bed mid-terraced property.

£125,000

Staley Croft, Cannock, Staffordshire.

Three-bed mid-town house.

£115,000

Holt Street, Crewe.

End-of-terrace home. Extended to the rear.

£109,000

Strand Court, Rye, near Hastings.

First-floor one-bed flat near town centre.

Source: Halifax Estate Agents

Buy-to-let: Investors learn to live with rising rates

Confidence in the buy-to-let market remains "robust" despite recent interest rate rises, a Bradford & Bingley (B&B) survey of nearly 5,000 landlords has found.

The majority (88 per cent) said they planned to increase or maintain their property portfolio, and almost all expected rents either to rise or remain the same.

"Higher interest rates may have an effect on cashflow but they have no impact on long-term capital value," said Andy Wiggans, B&B's director of mortgages.

The typical investor is male, aged 36 to 45, and has between one and five properties. The South-east remains the most popular area, followed by London.

Housing Market: Borrowers keep the home fires burning but growth slows

The UK housing market is slowing despite record home loan figures for May, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reported last week.

Although gross lending reached £30.6bn, the annual growth rate of lending - 5 per cent higher than in May 2006 - is half that seen earlier this year.

"While this figure is a record for May," the CML noted, "it does indicate the market is slowing."

The CML's research dovetails with other surveys indicating that house price inflation - currently running at 9.5 to 10 per cent - is cooling.

In London, wealthy overseas buyers have fuelled inflation, now over 20 per cent in some boroughs. But prices in other parts of the UK are stagnating or falling.

Data for May this year from the British Bankers' Association showed borrowing on credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts had fallen on the previous month.

Compare top offer on tracker and fixd rate mortgages at Independent Compare