Purchasing property can be a profitable investment for the long-term if meticulously planned, according to one expert.

Purchasing property can be a profitable investment for the long-term if meticulously planned, according to one expert.

Tom Entwhistle, editor of Landlordzone, a website for landlords, says: "The long-term property market will always be good."

His comments follow the release of a number of house price indexes released this month which suggest that house prices across the UK are continuing to rise.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), a source of land and property information, reported that house price growth across the country has reached a level of three per cent.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's calculations almost matched the Rics figures, claiming that UK house prices rose by 2.9 per cent in January from the previous month.

Rics said it is confident that the current buoyant state of the market will be sustained in 2006.

However, Mr Entwhistle explained that prospective homebuyers should still approach the market with caution.

"You always get up turns in house prices and people think it will continue to go up, but it can go the other way as well," he said.