House prices dropped by 3.3% – more than the average for Wales – in Powys in January, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 3.5% annual decline.

The average Powys house price in January was £227,883, Land Registry figures show – a 3.3% decrease on December.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices decreased 0.1%, and Powys was lower than the 0.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Powys fell by £8,300 – putting the area 18th among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Ceredigion, where property prices increased on average by 4.8%, to £264,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Newport lost 6.7% of their value, giving an average price of £222,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Powys spent an average of £200,400 on their property – £6,700 less than a year ago, but £36,200 more than in January 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £253,800 on average in January – 26.6% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Powys in January – they dropped 3.8% in price, to £94,393 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 5.6%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Powys compare?

Buyers paid 7% more than the average price in Wales (£213,000) in January for a property in Powys. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £282,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £332,000 on average, and 1.5 times the price as in Powys. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.4 times the price as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£136,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, at £1.2 million.

Factfile

Average property price in January

Annual change to January

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales