House prices dropped by 1.8 per cent in Gwynedd in December, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 0.1 per cent annual decline.

The average Gwynedd house price in December was £213,196, Land Registry figures show – a 1.8 per cent decrease on November.

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

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Gwynedd fell by £190 – putting the area sixth 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 per cent, to £323,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Ceredigion lost 11.4 per cent of their value, giving an average price of £233,000.

First-time buyers in Gwynedd spent an average of £186,540 on their property – £110 less than a year ago, but £50,330 more than in December 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £243,860 on average in December – 30.7 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Gwynedd in December – they dropped 2 per cent in price, to £315,118 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 0.2 per cent.

Among other types of property:

Buyers paid roughly the same as the average price in Wales (£214,000) in December for a property in Gwynedd. 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 1.6 times the price as in Gwynedd. 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.