HOUSE prices in Ceredigion declined slightly, by 0.9 per cent, in September, contributing to a 1.2 per cent fall over the last 12 months, according to new figures.

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the average property in the area sold for £182,084 – significantly lower than the UK average of £232,554.

Across Wales, property prices have risen by 5.8 per cent in the last year, to £162,089. The region outperformed the UK as whole, which saw the average property value increase by 3.5 per cent.

The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The average homeowner in Ceredigion will have seen their property jump in value by around £15,000 in the last five years.

The figures also showed that buyers who made their first step onto the property ladder in Ceredigion in September spent an average of £165,846 – around £14,000 more than it would have cost them five years ago.

Between August last year and July this year, the most recent 12 months for which sales volume data is available, 988 homes were sold in Ceredigion, four per cent more than in the previous year.

The highest house prices in the UK in September were found in London’s Kensington and Chelsea, where properties sold for an average of £1.5m – 19 times the cost of a home in Burnley, where the average property cost just £79,400.

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online tomorrow