House prices crashed by 7.1 per cent in Ceredigion in December, new figures show.

The large drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer an 11.4 per cent annual decline – the worst in Wales.

The average Ceredigion house price in December was £233,387, Land Registry figures show – a 7.1 per cent decrease on November.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 0.9 per cent, and Ceredigion was lower than the 0.1 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Ceredigion fell by £30,000 – putting the area bottom among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in the Vale of Glamorgan, where property prices increased on average by 4.7 per cent, to £323,000.

First-time buyers in Ceredigion spent an average of £212,000 on their property – £27,000 less than a year ago, but £42,000 more than in December 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £257,000 on average in December – 20.9 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Ceredigion in December – they dropped 7.3 per cent in price, to £300,567 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 11.7 per cent.

Among other types of property:

Buyers paid 9.2 per cent more than the average price in Wales (£214,000) in December for a property in Ceredigion. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £285,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £348,000 on average, and 1.5 times the price as in Ceredigion. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.7 times the price as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£131,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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