House prices dropped by 1.6% in Waverley in February, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 5% annual decline.

The average Waverley house price in February was £498,177, Land Registry figures show – a 1.6% decrease on January.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across the South East, where prices increased 1.1%, and Waverley was lower than the 0.4% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Waverley fell by £26,000 – putting the area 40th among the South East’s 64 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Winchester, where property prices increased on average by 6.1%, to £490,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Gosport lost 12.2% of their value, giving an average price of £234,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Waverley spent an average of £366,000 on their property – £18,000 less than a year ago, but £31,000 more than in February 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £583,000 on average in February – 59.1% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Waverley in February – they dropped 1.9% in price, to £821,389 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 5.9%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Waverley compare?

Buyers paid 33.6% more than the average price in the South East (£373,000) in February for a property in Waverley. Across the South East, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £281,000.

The most expensive properties in the South East were in Elmbridge – £654,000 on average, and 1.3 times the price as in Waverley. Elmbridge properties cost 2.8 times the price as homes in Southampton (£232,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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

Factfile

Average property price in February

Annual change to February

Highest and lowest annual growth in the South East