Good news for home owners as house price increases continue

House prices increased slightly at the start of the year on Wearside, new figures show.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in Sunderland achieve annual growth of 2.3%.

The average Sunderland house price in January was £117,032, according to Land Registry figures – a 0.5% increase on December.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across the North East, where prices decreased by 2.6%.

Sunderland also outperformed the 1.1% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Sunderland rose by £2,600 – putting the area fourth among the North East’s 12 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Redcar and Cleveland, where properties increased on average by 6.1%, to £123,000.

At the other end of the scale, properties in Hartlepool dropped 5.3% in value, giving an average price of £106,000.

In Sunderland, owners of semi-detached houses saw the biggest price rise in January.

Prices increased by 0.7%, to an average of £121,678. Over the last year, prices rose by 3.1%.

The price of detached homes remained level month on month but up 1.9% annually to an average of £212,221.

The cost of a terraced home in the city went up by 0.6% in January – up 2.3% annually to an average of £95,355.

The price of flats fell by 0.2% on the month, meaning an annual downturn of 1.1% to an average of £75,314.

First-time buyers in Sunderland

spent an average of £102,300 on their property – £2,400 more than a year ago, and £9,500 more than in 2015.

Former owner-occupiers paid £131,200 on average in January.

Buyers in Sunderland paid on average 7.6% less than the average price in the North East – £127,000 - in January.

Across the North East, property prices remain low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £231,000.

The highest property prices in the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea - an average January price of £1.2m.