The average price of a house in Croydon has risen by more than a fifth in the past year to £360,845, new figures have revealed.

The 20.3 per cent increase is one of the steepest in the country, and second only in London to the borough of Newham, according to the Land Registry.

It means that a house in Croydon now costs nearly 15 times the average annual wage in the borough.

The new figures come just weeks after Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell was appointed as the Conservative Government's housing minister.

Estate agent Kosheem Mohammed, who works for James Chiltern in West Croydon, estimated prices for a two-bedroom house in the area had risen by "about £100,000" in the past two years.

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Asked what had caused such a dramatic increase, Ms Mohammed said: "It's the Westfield. East Croydon has always been a popular area because of the commuting, [but] nobody wanted to live in West Croydon. But now the Westfield is coming in... it's my main selling point.

"It's much cheaper to commute from here as well."

Ms Mohammed admitted that the recent referendum result to leave the European Union had caused the market to slow down.

But she added: "I don't think it's going to affect [prices in the long term]."

In April this year, two months before the Brexit vote, 273 houses were sold in Croydon - the second highest total in London, behind Bromley.

Mr Barwell could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Since taking over the role of minister for housing and planning policy last month, the MP has repeatedly reaffirmed the Government's pledge, made by his predecessor Brandon Lewis, to build one million more homes by 2020.

But Mr Barwell has so far been silent in Parliament on the question of rising house prices.

In May, Mr Barwell's Conservative colleague, Croydon South MP Chris Philp, was accused of “failing to understand” the difficulties of getting onto the property ladder after he suggested saving for a £10,000 deposit is affordable.

Mr Philp's comments came less than month after Alex Parsons, Croydon’s representative for campaign group Generation Rent, told this newspaper that rising prices meant the the dream of owning his own house was now “out of reach”.

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