House prices dropped by 1.6% in Torridge in January, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 13% annual decline – the worst in the South West.

The average Torridge house price in January was £285,972, Land Registry figures show – a 1.6% decrease on December.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across the South West, where prices increased 1.5%, and Torridge was lower than the 0.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Torridge fell by £43,000 – putting the area bottom among the South West’s 26 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in South Hams, where property prices increased on average by 11%, to £432,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Torridge spent an average of £228,000 on their property – £35,000 less than a year ago, but £43,000 more than in January 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £317,000 on average in January – 38.9% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Torridge in January – they dropped 1.7% in price, to £146,517 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 13.9%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Torridge compare?

Buyers paid 9.8% less than the average price in the South West (£317,000) in January for a property in Torridge. Across the South West, property prices are higher than those across the UK, where the average cost is £282,000.

The most expensive properties in the South West were in Cotswold – £500,000 on average, and 1.7 times the price as in Torridge. Cotswold properties cost 2.3 times the price as homes in Plymouth (£221,000 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

Annual change to January

Highest and lowest annual growth in the South West