HOUSE prices were on the rise in Herefordshire in July, new figures show.

The average Herefordshire house price in July was £258,583, Land Registry figures show – a 0.9% increase on June.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 8% annual growth.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across the West Midlands, where prices decreased 4.9%, and Herefordshire outperformed the 3.7% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Herefordshire rose by £19,000 – putting the area 30th among the West Midlands’s 34 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Wyre Forest, where property prices increased on average by 19.8%, to £233,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Warwick gained 2.6% in value, giving an average price of £316,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of flats saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Herefordshire in July – they increased 1.7%, to £121,508 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 4.7%.

Other types of property:

Detached: up 0.4% monthly; up 8.6% annually; £372,697 average

Semi-detached: up 1.4% monthly; up 7.9% annually; £239,850 average

Terraced: up 1.1% monthly; up 8% annually; £179,816 average

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Herefordshire spent an average of £199,000 on their property – £14,000 more than a year ago, and £31,000 more than in July 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £293,000 on average in July – 47.7% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Herefordshire compare?

Buyers paid 17.1% more than the average price in the West Midlands (£221,000) in July for a property in Herefordshire. Across the West Midlands, property prices are roughly the same as those across the UK, where the average cost £256,000.

The most expensive properties in the West Midlands were in Stratford-on-Avon – £355,000 on average, and 1.4 times as much as in Herefordshire. Stratford-on-Avon properties cost 2.6 times as much as homes in Stoke (£135,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average July sale price of £1.3 million could buy 13 properties in Burnley (average £101,000).