House prices dropped by 2.3% in North Somerset in January, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 0.9% annual decline.

The average North Somerset house price in January was £325,317, Land Registry figures show – a 2.3% decrease on December.

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

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in North Somerset fell by £3,000 – putting the area 10th 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. At the other end of the scale, properties in Torridge lost 13% of their value, giving an average price of £286,000.

First-time buyers in North Somerset spent an average of £264,800 on their property – £3,900 less than a year ago, but £47,100 more than in January 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £368,700 on average in January – 39.2% more than first-time buyers.

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in North Somerset in January – they dropped 2.5% in price, to £192,954 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 2.3%.

Among other types of property:

Buyers paid 2.7% more than the average price in the South West (£317,000) in January for a property in North Somerset. 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 1.5 times the price as in North Somerset. 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.

Average property price in January

Annual change to January

Highest and lowest annual growth in the South West