Peterborough house prices increased slightly in March

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 5.5 per cent annual growth.

The average Peterborough house price in March was £203,886, Land Registry figures show – a 0.2 per cent increase on February.

Over the month, the picture was less good than that across the East of England, where prices increased 1.2 per cent, and Peterborough underperformed compared to the 1.8 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Peterborough rose by £11,000 – putting the area 42nd among the East of England’s 50 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in East Suffolk, where property prices increased on average by 17.3 per cent, to £282,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Welwyn Hatfield gained 0.1 per cent in value, giving an average price of £396,000.

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Peterborough in March – they increased 0.4 per cent, to £163,909 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 6.3 per cent.

Changes among other types of property were:

Detached: up 0.2% monthly; up 6.5% annually; £326,963 average. Semi-detached: up 0.1% monthly; up 5.2% annually; £205,881 average. Flats: up 0.1% monthly; up 2.2% annually; £108,515 average.

First-time buyers in Peterborough spent an average of £171,300 on their property – £8,200 more than a year ago, and £32,900 more than in March 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £230,400 on average in March – 34.5 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid over a third (35.3 per cent) less than the average price in the East of England (£315,000) in March for a property in Peterborough. Across the East of England, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £256,000.

The most expensive properties in the East of England were in Three Rivers – £544,000 on average, and 2.7 times as much as in Peterborough. Three Rivers properties cost three times as much as homes in Great Yarmouth (£184,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average March sale price of £1.3 million could buy 14 properties in Burnley (average £94,000).