Average home in Peterborough cost £195,759 to buy in July as house prices in city rise slightly

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 2.1 per cent annual growth.

The average house price was £195,759 in the city in July, Land Registry figures show – a 0.1 per cent increase on June.

Over the month, the picture was similar to that across the East of England, where prices increased 0.2 per cent, and Peterborough underperformed compared to the 0.5 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Peterborough rose by £4,100 – putting the area 14th among the East of England’s 47 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in South Norfolk, where properties increased on average by 7.3 per cent, to £274,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Broxbourne dropped 4.5 per cent in value, giving an average price of £342,000.

Winners and Losers -

Owners of semi-detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Peterborough in July – they increased 0.3 per cent, to £198,873 on average – but over the last year, prices dropped by 0.2 per cent.

Among other types of property:

Detached: down 0.1 per cent monthly; up 2.4 per cent annually; £310,733 average.

Terraced: down 0.1 per cent monthly; up 2.2 per cent annually; £156,295 average.

First-time buyers in Peterborough spent an average of £165,100 on their property – £3,200 more than last year and £34,000 more than just five years ago.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £220,400 on average in July a third more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 33.6 per cent less than the average price in the East of England (£295,000) in July for a property in Peterborough. Across the East of England, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost reaches £238,000.

The most expensive properties in the East of England were in Three Rivers, near Watford – £517,000 on average, and 2.6 times as much as in Peterborough. Three Rivers properties cost three times as much as homes in Great Yarmouth (£173,000 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 £1.2 million could buy 14 properties in Burnley (average £91,000).

According to Fitzjohn Estate Agents of Hampton Hargate, it was the busiest month for ten years in the market as the post-lockdown mini-boom accelerated and home-moving filled the void left by people unwilling to spend their cash on risky foreign holidays.

According to house buying website Rightmove, the highest number of sales were agreed in a month since they started tracking data over ten years ago, up by 20 per cent on the previous high.

It saw the highest number of properties coming to market in a month since March 2008 as more movers joined in and the weekly sales agreed figure in August was up by 60 per cent compared to the same week in 2019 as buyers ignored the usual summer holiday slowdown.

Due to such record levels of buyer activity there were processing delays requiring patience from buyers awaiting completion of sales.