House prices dropped by 2.5% in Powys in December, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 7.4% annual decline.

The average Powys house price in December was £236,578, Land Registry figures show – a 2.5% decrease on November.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 0.9%, and Powys was lower than the 0.1% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Powys fell by £19,000 – putting the area 20th among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in the Vale of Glamorgan, where property prices increased on average by 4.7%, to £323,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Ceredigion lost 11.4% of their value, giving an average price of £233,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Powys spent an average of £207,000 on their property – £16,000 less than a year ago, but £42,000 more than in December 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £264,000 on average in December – 27.4% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Powys in December – they dropped 2.7% in price, to £317,883 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 7.5%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Powys compare?

Buyers paid 10.6% more than the average price in Wales (£214,000) in December for a property in Powys. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £285,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £348,000 on average, and 1.5 times the price as in Powys. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.7 times the price as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£131,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea.

Factfile

Average property price in December

Annual change to December

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales