House prices in Gwynedd dropped by 1.7% in January – more than the average for Wales.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 2.2% annual decline.

The average Gwynedd house price in January was £205,327, Land Registry figures show – a 1.7% decrease on December.

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

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Gwynedd fell by £4,500 – putting the area 14th 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-time buyers in Gwynedd spent an average of £180,000 on their property – £3,700 less than a year ago, but £43,800 more than in January 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £234,300 on average in January – 30.1% more than first-time buyers.

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Gwynedd in January – they dropped 1.9% in price, to £120,677 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 3.2%.

Among other types of property:

• Detached: down 1.8% monthly; down 2.5% annually; £300,360 average

• Semi-detached: down 1.6% monthly; down 1.3% annually; £210,116 average

• Terraced: down 1.6% monthly; down 2.2% annually; £159,479 average

How do property prices in Gwynedd compare?

Buyers paid 3.6% less than the average price in Wales (£213,000) in January for a property in Gwynedd. 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 1.6 times the price as in Gwynedd. 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

• Gwynedd: £205,327

• Wales: £213,063

• UK: £281,913

Annual change to January

• Gwynedd: -2.2%

• Wales: -0.8%

• UK: -0.6%

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales

• Ceredigion: +4.8%

• Newport: -6.7%