House prices increased by 1% in Denbighshire in February, new figures show.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 12.3% annual growth.

The average Denbighshire house price in February was £178,603, Land Registry figures show – a 1% increase on January.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across Wales, where prices decreased 0.7%, and Denbighshire outperformed the UK as a whole, where prices did not change.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Denbighshire rose by £20,000 – putting the area eighth among Wales’s 22 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Blaenau Gwent, where property prices increased on average by 18.4%, to £108,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Flintshire lost 1.1% of their value, giving an average price of £173,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of flats saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Denbighshire in February – they increased 1.3%, to £91,278 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 9.4%.

Among other types of property:

  • Detached: up 1% monthly; up 12.9% annually; £226,086 average
  • Semi-detached: up 1% monthly; up 12% annually; £159,560 average
  • Terraced: up 1.1% monthly; up 12.2% annually; £126,873 average
  • First steps on the property ladder
  • First-time buyers in Denbighshire spent an average of £159,000 on their property – £17,000 more than a year ago, and £35,000 more than in January 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £198,000 on average in February – 24.3% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Denbighshire compare?

Buyers paid 0.7% less than the average price in Wales (£180,000) in February for a property in Denbighshire. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £250,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £303,000 on average, and 1.7 times as much as in Denbighshire. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.8 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£108,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average February sale price of £1.2 million could buy 13 properties in Hyndburn (average £92,000).

Factfile:

Average property price in February

  • Denbighshire: £178,603
  • Wales: £179,861
  • UK: £250,341

Annual growth to February

  • Denbighshire: +12.3%
  • Wales: +8.4%
  • UK: +8.6%

Best and worst annual growth in Wales

  • Blaenau Gwent: +18.4%
  • Flintshire: -1.1%