House prices dropped by 2.7% in Carmarthenshire in February, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 5.2% annual decline.

The average Carmarthenshire house price in February was £195,802, Land Registry figures show – a 2.7% decrease on January.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 0.4%, and Carmarthenshire was lower than the 0.4% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Carmarthenshire fell by £11,000 – putting the area 18th 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 3.5%, to £248,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Newport lost 7.5% of their value, giving an average price of £220,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Carmarthenshire spent an average of £173,100 on their property – £9,200 less than a year ago, but £44,900 more than in February 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £219,100 on average in February – 26.6% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Carmarthenshire in February – they dropped 2.9% in price, to £114,667 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 6.9%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Carmarthenshire compare?

Buyers paid 7.1% less than the average price in Wales (£211,000) in February for a property in Carmarthenshire. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £281,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £333,000 on average, and 1.7 times the price as in Carmarthenshire. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.6 times the price as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£127,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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

Factfile

Average property price in February

Annual change to February

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales