House prices dropped by 2.4% in Ceredigion in January, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 17.1% annual growth.

The average Ceredigion house price in January was £238,864, Land Registry figures show – a 2.4% decrease on December.

Over the month, the picture was worse than that across Wales, where prices increased 1.3%, and Ceredigion underperformed compared to the 0.4% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Ceredigion rose by £35,000 – putting the area fifth among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in the Vale of Glamorgan, where property prices increased on average by 20.8%, to £297,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Flintshire gained just 7.2% in value, giving an average price of £199,000.

Owners of detached houses fared worst in Ceredigion in January – they dropped 2.5% in price, to £308,929 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 18.3%.

Among other types of property:

First-time buyers in Ceredigion spent an average of £216,000 on their property – £31,000 more than a year ago, and £61,000 more than in January 2017.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £264,000 on average in January – 21.8% more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 15.8% more than the average price in Wales (£206,000) in January for a property in Ceredigion. Across Wales, property prices are higher than those across the UK, where the average cost £274,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £328,000 on average, and 1.4 times as much as more than in Ceredigion. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.7 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£121,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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

Average property price in January

Annual growth to January

Best and worst annual growth in Wales