Welsh house prices rise... but slower than UK rate

THE average price of a house in Wales has increased to £145,294 in the last year. But growth has been much slower than the rest of the UK.

House prices across the whole of Britain reached a record high in February after increasing by £12,000 on average over the past year, according to official figures.

Property values increased by 5.8% year-on-year to reach a record of £218,000 typically across the UK, figures compiled jointly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Land Registry and other bodies show.

However, that still remains below the average annual house price growth seen in 2016 of 7.3%.

House price increases slowed from July 2016 to October 2016 but have been slowly speeding up since then.

The average UK house price was £218,000 in February 2017.

That is £12,000 higher than in February 2016 and £2,000 higher than last m onth.

Wales saw house prices increase by 1.8% over the previous 12 months to stand at £145,000 typically.

But house prices actually fell in Wales in February by -0.9%.

While the most expensive borough to live in is Kensington and Chelsea in London, where the average price for a house is £1.4 million, the cheapest place to purchase a property is Blaenau Gwent, where the average price for a house is £78,000.

Anglesey saw the biggest drop in prices in Wales, down 5.7% to an average of £153,012.

Rhondda Cynon Taf and Ceredigion both saw prices fall 1.9% in a year, to an average of £97,211 and £169,704 respectively, while prices fell 0.5% in Gwynedd to an average of £141,084.

Bridgend saw prices rise 10.4% in a year, to an average of £144,658, while prices in Torfaen rose 8.6% to an average of £131,800.

Prices in Cardiff rose 1.9% to £192,624, while they were up 1.1% in Swansea to an average of £135,816.

Further afield, Scotland saw the average price increase by 3.1% over the year to stand at £139,000.

The average price in Northern Ireland stands at £125,000, marking a 5.7% annual rise.

The East of England recorded a double digit increase. House prices there were 10.3% higher than a year earlier, taking them to around £282,000 on average.

House prices in London were 3.7% higher than a year earlier - a slower rate of growth than English regions such as the Midlands, the South East, the South West and the North West.

The North East saw the slowest rate of house price growth among the English regions, with an annual increase of 2.2%.

London has the highest average house price, at £475,000. The North East of England has the lowest, at £124,000.

The local authority showing the largest annual growth in the year to February 2017 was the Shetland Islands, where prices jumped by 25.9% to stand at £184,000 on average.

The report said low house sales numbers there could lead to volatility in the figures.

The lowest annual growth was recorded in Aberdeen, where prices fell by 9.6% to stand at £161,000.