House prices leapt by 5.3 per cent in Ceredigion in December, new figures show.

The significant rise contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow by 16.2 per cent over the last year.

The average Ceredigion house price in December was £279,439, Land Registry figures show – a 5.3 per cent increase on November.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 0.7 per cent, and Ceredigion was above the 0.4 per cent drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Ceredigion rose by £39,000 – putting the area third among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Blaenau Gwent, where property prices increased on average by 23.3 per cent, to £143,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Conwy gained 2.5 per cent in value, giving an average price of £211,000.

The average UK house price was £294,000 in December 2022, which was £26,000 higher than 12 months earlier.

It meant prices increased by 9.8 per cent annually in December, slowing from 10.6 per cent annual growth in November, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Buyers paid 25.6 per cent more than the average price in Wales (£222,000) in December for a property in Ceredigion. Across Wales, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £294,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £361,000 on average, and 1.3 times as much as more than in Ceredigion. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.5 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£143,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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