Sussex is the fifth most expensive county to buy a country home, with the average costing £1.29 million.

Surrey remained the most expensive county, with the average price of its homes advertised in Country Life magazine reaching £1.82 million from £1.8 million the previous year.

Berkshire was the second most expensive place, at £1.65 million, followed by Hertfordshire at £1.56 million and Essex at £1.3 million.

The magazine compiled the list from homes it has advertised last year.

During the year, 75 prime homes costing more than £5 million were advertised, compared with just 32 in 2001.

There was also evidence of prices rising lower down the scale, with a 61 per cent increase in the number of homes advertised for between £1 million and £2 million and a 71 per cent jump in properties with a price tag of between £2 and £5 million.

While almost half of all homes advertised in the magazine during 2001 cost less than £500,000, in 2002 just 30 per cent of properties fell into this range.

Country Life reported a slow down in sales of prime property during the final part of the year as the stock market failed to recover.

Penny Churchill, property correspondent at Country Life, said: "Over the first half of the year people were very optimistic but reality kicked in last autumn."

She said the fall in prices tended to be concentrated in regions around London, where people were more affected by the state of the City.