House prices dropped slightly, by 0.4 per cent, in Ceredigion in October, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 0.2 per cent annual decline.

The average Ceredigion house price in October was £257,804, Land Registry figures show – a 0.4 per cent decrease on September.

Over the month, the picture was similar to that across Wales, where prices decreased 0.5 per cent, and Ceredigion was above the 0.7 per cent drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Ceredigion fell by £400 – putting the area ninth 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 3.1 per cent, to £319,000.

At the other end of the scale, properties in Merthyr Tydfil lost 10.9 per cent of their value, giving an average price of £137,000.

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Ceredigion in October – they dropped 1 per cent in price, to £115,758 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 1.6 per cent.

Buyers paid 20.4 per cent more than the average price in Wales (£214,000) in October for a property in Ceredigion.

Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £288,000.